Palantir’s manifesto is pure AI Technofascism – shouldn’t expelling Peter Thiel be a national security issue?
As artificial intelligence accelerates beyond public understanding, the companies shaping it — and the ideologies behind them — are facing growing scrutiny.
Technofascism? Why Palantir’s pro-West ‘manifesto’ has critics alarmed
Palantir’s ‘manifesto’ has been described as an ‘AI-driven threat to humanity’s existence’ and ‘technofascism’.
What Palantir’s manifesto actually argues
The US tech giant Palantir Technologies has posted what it terms a summary of Palantir CEO Alex Karp and head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska’s book, The Technological Republic, on social media.
Many of the positions articulated in the book go far beyond what would normally be expected of a tech company: calling for the introduction of national service, the “moral” duty of technology companies to participate in defence, the necessity for hard power if what it calls free and democratic powers are to prevail, and an embrace of religion in public life.
The publication of what appears to be a 22-point manifesto comes at a critical time for Palantir, which faces global criticism for its support of US President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown and its backing of the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Many have expressed alarm at the book’s emphasis on cultural hierarchies and what it calls “regressive” cultures.
Al Jazeera
AI is a doom loop…
…while AI grows and grows…
One big thing: We’ve been warned
Six facts. No hyperbole. All in the past 60 days.
- AI is the fastest-growing product category in world history.
- One of the latest models is so powerful that its maker won’t release it to the public.
- OpenAI and Anthropic say their most powerful AI coding models are now building themselves.
- AI companies are growing less transparent as models grow more powerful. The federal government requires zero transparency.
- AI resentment is building fast. In early April, the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was the target of two attacks in the same week. Shaken, he wrote: “The fear and anxiety about AI is justified … Power cannot be too concentrated.”
- AI havoc is no longer theoretical: This year’s great software rout erased $2 trillion in value as investors realised, week by week, new human tasks that the latest models would wipe out, from coding to real estate services to legal research to financial management.
Why it matters: A year ago, we wrote a wake-up call to business leaders. This one is for everyone: We’ve been warned — by the data, by the technology, and by the people most responsible for building it — that we’ve unleashed something powerful, something growing exponentially, and something understood by very few, especially those in power.
AI power, democracy, and the risk of technocratic control
Between the lines: Think of this as the dawn of a new Atomic Age. The atomic race that culminated in 1945 was the last time our species grappled with the advent of such a transformative, awe-inspiring technology. Its possibility — for both prosperity and destruction — led to the creation of science fiction that imagined everything from utopia to apocalypse.
- Much of the most viral writing about AI can be considered modern science fiction. “AI 2027,” a 2025 attempt to game out superhuman intelligence led by a former OpenAI researcher, ends with AI either supporting a pro-democracy revolution that spans the solar system or the tech undertaking the harvesting of humanity’s brains.
- This year’s discourse did much the same. Matt Shumer’s viral “Something Big Is Happening” conflated AI’s code-generating ability with the arrival of an intelligence with real taste. Citrini Research’s “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” imagined a worst-case economic scenario that involved zero effective response from either governments or markets.
- These pieces drove so much discussion and, in some cases, moved markets because they could be right. To be clear, they’re probably not. They imagine edge cases and extremes. But we can’t promise you they’re wrong. The president can’t. The heads of AI companies can’t. If anyone claims they can, that’s science fiction, too.
The bottom line: Any one of these six facts would be the business story of the decade in a normal industry. Together, in a 60-day window, they describe a technology whose growth, power and risk have outrun the public’s understanding — and whose builders are saying so, in their own words.
Between the lines: Think of this as the dawn of a new Atomic Age. The atomic race that 
The big picture: We’ve no clue where this ends and the good or bad that might be unleashed along the way. No one does. But it’s increasingly clear that absent better leadership, collaboration and understanding, American society, workers, academic institutions and government aren’t remotely ready for what’s unfolding.…and the ability for it to break out beyond our capacity to contain it is an open question…
Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, Romeo Dean
We predict that the impact of superhuman AI over the next decade will be enormous, exceeding that of the Industrial Revolution.
We wrote a scenario that represents our best guess about what that might look like.1 It’s informed by trend extrapolations, wargames, expert feedback, experience at OpenAI, and previous forecasting successes
…which brings me to the witch king, Peter Thiel, who set up Palantir and whose bleak nihilistic libertarian AI Technofascism stains Palantir to the soul.
Thiel was granted NZ Citizenship so he could have a bolt hole to escape to if global collapse occurs.
Shouldn’t an incredibly rich and dangerous AI Technofascist be discouraged from being a citizen here?
Shouldn’t revoking his citizenship be a national security issue?
I’m asking for a friend that I don’t know. And if I suddenly die, know I was NOT suicidal.
The AI “monster” is now loose, “and the ability for it to break out beyond our capacity to contain it, is an open question…….” Yes AI is scary and mostly uncontrollable. So what can our world do to remain safe? As if we needed more stress and threats with climate change also in our faces. NZ has Peter Thiel, who set up Palantir, and now has a bolt-hole in our lovely SI in which to hide when his monsters come to get him! Maybe Thiel could be first in line when Seymour brings in his revamped immigration policy – we live in hope! Thx again Key for ‘giving’ us Luxon and Thiel – well done!!!