Is the government spying on me? Rise of AI increases risk

Tech companies’ lack of transparency and accountability in developing surveillance tools that governments can use is unacceptable.

President Trump held a summit with CEOs focused on American values, but concerns rise about threats to freedom and liberty from government surveillance.Palantir, a technology company, has received significant federal funding, raising concerns about the potential for a surveillance state due to its expanding data collection capabilities.The partnership between big tech companies like Palantir and OpenAI with the government raises concerns about potential abuses of power and threats to civil liberties.

President Donald Trump recently gathered CEOs for a summit about renewing the United States “spiritually and financially.” At the top of the agenda was a closer look at “American values” such as faith and freedom.

There is cause for alarm, however. Centuries after Americans declared independence from the British monarchy, our freedom and liberty are under threat − not only from foreign governments like China, but potentially our own. 

America’s surveillance state is spreading as the federal government collects personal data of hundreds of millions of Americans. In the age of artificial intelligence, with data collection accelerating at an unprecedented rate, our privacy has never been more vulnerable.

Who is the culprit? The data collectors range from the National Security Agency to Silicon Valley’s cadre of data-hungry technology companies.

Add to that list a new organization: Palantir. While it is not a household name like Google or Netflix, it is soon to be a common domestic concern. The technology company’s surveillance operation has exploded in recent months, raising the possibility of creating a full-fledged surveillance state.

Opinion: AI knows we shouldn’t trust it for everything. I know because I asked it.

Since January, Palantir has received more than $113 million in federal funds, according to The New York Times, not including a $795 million Defense Department contract awarded in May.

While the federal government increased data sharing across agencies (with Palantir’s help), the company continues to shop its technology to the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

AI technology could be repurposed for sinister uses

We are talking about technology that can be weaponized. While Palantir’s current focus is to identify people in the United States illegally, tracking movements in real time, the company is also building the infrastructure that could be used for a massive surveillance state.

Former Palantir employees have warned about the potential for the company’s AI tools to surveil American citizens with a disregard for personal privacy.

It is not so far-fetched. Palantir’s AI software is used by the Israeli Defense Forces to strike targets in Gaza. It is used to assist the U.S. Defense Department in analyzing drone footage. And it has been used by the Los Angeles Police Department to forecast crime patterns.

This is called “predictive policing.” If “Minority Report”was not a horror movie before, it is now.

Given the government’s penchant for abusing power (see: COVID-19 censorship or the NSA spying scandal), does this not seem like an obvious move against our civil liberties?

For years, the NSA engaged in the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, as was exposed in 2013. Between 2001 and 2007, government wiretapping − executed without warrants − affected millions of U.S. citizens.

Now, the same agencies are tapping into the power of AI to expand government surveillance in once unimaginable ways.

Opinion: AI is changing our world. At what point will it change our reality?

Of course, the federal government can already access a wide range of our personal data, but it is often separated by agency. Washington, DC, can create exponentially more detailed profiles on all of us by sharing data with the help of Palantir’s AI tools. 

Even when surveilling noncitizens, the government’s data collection inevitably tracks individual Americans based on their own interactions with these noncitizens. The government’s data collection is based on information from police departments, financial institutions and other entities, like Palantir.

Big government and big tech partnership raises concerns

Even if the alliance between the government and Palantir works as intended, it is a potential threat to our civil liberties. Political dissidents could become targets. Not even those with limited public personas are safe from the state’s detailed profiling machine. 

These systems are not perfect, and neither are our leaders. What happens when AI systems fail? What happens when data collection goes haywire?

Palantir is hardly alone. OpenAI recently launched OpenAI for Government, which aims to equip federal, state and local leaders with advanced AI tools.

OpenAI claims to serve the “public good” and “bolster national security readiness,” but why would private citizens take that at face value? What does “readiness” actually mean, in practice?

At the moment, many of our elected officials do not have answers to these questions, or they are just ignoring them. The same goes for OpenAI and Palantir, which are all too comfortable amassing ever-larger federal contracts and greater market share.

This lack of transparency or accountability is unacceptable. The only thing worse than the overreach of Big Government is Big Tech in bed with Big Government.

For those who care about freedom and liberty, now is the time to speak up, before it is too late.

Peyton Hornberger serves as communications director at The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the implications of advanced artificial intelligence.