▲ Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir
Alex Karp, CEO of the U.S. AI-based data analytics firm Palantir, which announced its second-quarter earnings, fiercely criticized companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, comparing them to the "bourgeoisie."
In a shareholder letter released on August 3 (local time) following strong second-quarter results, Karp claimed that "the revolution for independence and AI sovereignty is now well underway" and that "our customers have refused to become vassals of (AI) language models."
This is interpreted as an attack on major AI companies and the broader industry developing closed AI models based on large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
He criticized them, saying, "These models have grown and evolved by absorbing almost all textual materials produced by our civilization, and now those models and their developers are targeting industries worldwide."
His argument is that major AI models charge for their services in tokens (the basic unit of AI computation) using AI trained on data from the internet and books, while taking the intellectual property (IP) of numerous customers by having individuals or businesses that use this AI feed their data back into it.
He added that businesses and institutions that previously depended on these AI models have also come to recognize the risks involved in handing over operational control of their organizations to AI or leaving AI models unattended internally.
Borrowing Marxist concepts, he notably compared AI model developers to the bourgeoisie (the property-owning class) and general enterprises to the proletariat (the working class).
Karp emphasized that LLM developers are "intentionally or not, trying to seize the means of production of their self-proclaimed partners (client companies)," adding that "the limitations and flaws of the token-industrial complex, which has threatened to take over the global economy, are becoming increasingly apparent."
At the same time, he asserted that unlike these AI developers, Palantir does not maintain a "parasitic relationship" with its client companies.
He stressed, "We are not compensated for clicks, tokens, or chats. Gamifying the most important developments in modern economic history is inappropriate."
Last month, Karp also poured criticism on closed AI companies during a media interview, accusing them of irresponsibly overselling their models.
In late July, Palantir joined an open letter by tech companies opposing regulations on open-source AI.
In an interview with the U.S. business news channel CNBC on the same day, regarding countermeasures against Chinese open-source models, he emphasized, "To win, we must compete, and America's open models must become as good as China's."
Addressing the controversy that Chinese companies are copying U.S. closed AI models through so-called "distillation," he pointed out, "(Closed AI models) were created by 'distilling' all IP around the world, including corporate data."
(Photo: Getty Images)
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