Being left behind in AI poses biggest risk to countries: Karp

Chapel Hill (North Carolina), Sep 3 (IANS) Palantir chief executive Alex Karp has warned that being left behind in the artificial intelligence race may pose a greater danger to countries than the technology’s possible adverse consequences, as governments scramble to secure computing capacity, electricity and control over their data.

Speaking during a fireside chat with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Karp said access to computing infrastructure was only one part of the system countries would need to compete in AI.

“You need access to compute, you need access to your own data,” Karp said. “So the stack is compute data, ability to manage data, ability to control the models, ability to train the models, and ability to compete against certain competitors and adversaries.”

Karp said countries could adopt different approaches to obtaining computing capacity, including partnerships with companies such as Nvidia. He described its chief executive, Jensen Huang, as “the world’s best” expert in the field and said Palantir was also exploring sovereign computing structures.

He stressed that the expansion of AI would require substantially more electricity. National leaders, he said, would have to explain how they planned to generate the power needed to support data centres and other infrastructure.

“You are gonna need a lot of electricity. How are you gonna get it?” Karp said, pointing to France’s continued reliance on nuclear energy as an example of a national power strategy.

Karp acknowledged that AI would bring costs and disruption and said he did not regard the technology as entirely beneficial. But refusing to adopt it, he argued, would create an even greater risk.

“I don’t think the AI revolution is 100 per cent good,” he said. “And with all these technologies, but you, but, but then being left behind is probably the biggest danger now.”

The Palantir chief rejected highly pessimistic claims about artificial intelligence, saying exaggerated warnings had frightened people and created political obstacles to its adoption.

“I don’t believe in the doom message,” Karp said. “A part of the problem we have in this country is a certain company was doing a doom message every day, and that doom message is really scared people.”

He said the concerns contained “elements of truth” but had been amplified to a point where they were causing significant political problems.

Karp also drew a distinction between developing AI and persuading societies to adopt it. The United States possesses a major advantage in producing the technology, he said, while some Asian countries may be better positioned to deploy it without encountering the same level of political resistance.

“We have an enormous advantage of production,” he said. “The dissemination of AI and getting people to adopt without political insanity, that’s where we are.”

Japan, South Korea and China may face fewer political obstacles to adoption, Karp said. European countries, by contrast, could be at a serious disadvantage if regulation and public opposition slowed the use of the technology.

“The technology’s not egalitarian,” Karp said. “There’s no getting around these issues, and so we have to figure out ways to bring people along and explain they’ll participate.”

Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by Karp, Peter Thiel and others. The Denver-based company develops data integration and artificial intelligence software used by government agencies, defence organisations and businesses.

AI data centres require large amounts of electricity to operate servers and cooling systems. Their growing energy demand has prompted technology companies and governments to examine nuclear power, renewable energy and other sources capable of providing reliable electricity.

–IANS

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