Karp Wants Less War, High-Energy Microwaves, and Schmidt as a Licensed Arms Dealer

In a rare in-depth interview with The New York Times, Alex Karp discusses how Palantir started and how the company is finding hidden things to protect the West.

Japan and the US are starting to collaborate on several military technologies, such as high-energy microwaves.

But first, Eric Schmidt gave a lecture at Stanford University in April that was posted on YouTube last week, quickly went viral, and then was taken down. In the lecture, Schmidt talks about his startup, White Stork, and its goals: building complicated AI robots and lowering costs, eliminating the need for ground battles. And then he gives some advice:

The Big Story

Alex Karp Wants Less War

"I want less war," says Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, in a rare in-depth interview with The New York Times. "You only stop war by having the best technology and by scaring the bejabers. If they are not scared [...] they will attack us."

The reporter Maureen Dowd met Karp in his home in New Hampshire and describes him as a "lean and extremely fit billionaire with unruly salt-and-pepper curls" who is "introvert charming", has ADHD, and can't hide if he is not interested in what someone is saying. She writes that Karp was a daydreaming doctoral student in German philosophy who ended up leading a shadowy data analytics firm that has become a major American defence contractor that works with spy services and is building the future of autonomous warfare.

Karp met Peter Thiel in law school. After law school, Karp went on to get his doctorate in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt. When he returned to California in 2002, he reconnected with Thiel, and the two started brainstorming. Thiel thought he could figure out how to find terrorists by using some of the paradigms developed at PayPal.

In 2003, they founded Palantir. It was partially backed by In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, by nearly $2 million.

Karp describes that Palantir is "finding the hidden things" by sifting through mountains of data to perceive patterns, like patterns of suspicious or aberrant behaviours. After 9/11, the CIA trusted Palantir to prevent the next terrorist attacks by finding the bad guy, even if the "bad guy actually works for you." Palantir has been credited with helping to locate Osama bin Laden.

Palantir has assisted Ukraine and Israel with data processing to gather relevant intelligence in their wars such as how to protect special forces by mapping capabilities, how to safely transport troops and how to target drones and missiles more accurately. Some analysts have said that Israel could not have shot down scores of Iranian missiles and drones in mere minutes without the tech made by Palantir.

"Saving lives and on occasion taking lives is super interesting," Karp says.

*Alex Karp in his home in New Hampshire. Source: The New York Times*

Palantir does not do business with China, Russia, or other countries opposed to the West.

"We have a consistently pro-Western view that the West has a superior way of living and organising itself, especially if we live up to our aspirations," Karp said to The New York Times.

He thinks that the US is very likely to end up in a three-front war with China, Russia, and Iran. Therefore, the US must keep developing autonomous weapons systems because the adversaries will.

"I think a lot of the issues come back to 'Are we in a dangerous world where you have to invest in these things?'" Karp says to The New York Times. "And I come down to a yes. All these technologies are dangerous. The only solution to stop AI abuse is to use AI."

Japan and US’s High-Energy Microwave Collaboration

Last month, Japan and the US signed off joint trials of high-energy microwaves.

Directed microwaves are used to interrupt the control of drones in flight, burning out their electronic circuits. The Defence Ministry expects the weapons to be a “game changer” in future wars — removing the need for bullets decreases recurring costs.

The Japanese government declared microwave technology a priority in 2022, and collaborating with the US is believed to speed up deployment.

Japan and the US have started collaborating on several projects. The first is an unmanned aircraft that will work alongside the next-generation fighter developed by Japan, Britain, and Italy. The fighter will replace the Air Self-Defence Force’s F-2 jet. They are also looking at a specialised interceptor for hypersonic missiles.

The Japan Ministry of Defense (JMOD) has also announced the establishment of a new defence technology research institute modelled after US agencies such as DARPA and DIU. The institute is expected to be launched in October.

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