Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander Karp opens his new book with the provocative declaration that “Silicon Valley has lost its way.”
Over the past decade or so, Karp has not been in the spotlight as data analytics companies have become famous for their work for the US military and intelligence. In a rare interview with The New York Times last year, he described himself as “progressive but awakened” with a “consistently pro-western view.”
Now, in “The Technical Republic: Hard Power, Soft Conviction, The West Future” (co-authored with Nicholas Zamiska, Head of Corporate Affairs and CEO attorney at Palantia), Carp writes something like a manifesto. . In fact, he and Zamiska describe it as the “beginning of the theory clarification” behind Palantia.
Silicon Valley’s early success was created by a close alliance between technology companies and the US government. They argue that the alliance is split and that the government will “bear the challenge of developing the next wave of pass-breaking technology to the private sector,” but Silicon Valley has “turned inwards and We are focusing our energy on narrow consumer products rather than talking projects.” Addressing our greater security and welfare. ”
The pair criticizes the output of Silicon Valley, dominated by “online advertising and shopping, social media and video sharing platforms.”
“The central discussion that advances on the page below will be to help the software industry restructure its relationship with government and to build technology and artificial intelligence capabilities that address the most pressing challenges we collectively face. That means you should pay attention to it.” Writes by Karp and Zamiska.
They also argue that Silicon Valley’s “engineering elite” has a “positive obligation to participate in national defense and clarification of national projects.”
The reviewer didn’t win completely. At Bloomberg, John Gantz complained that the “Technical Republic” is “not a book, but a business sale material.”
And in New Yorker, Gideon Lewis Kraus suggested that the book was “anachronism” written before Donald Trump’s victory in the November 2024 election. Currently, Lewis Kraus writes: “The vision of mutually supportive relationships between Washington and Silicon Valley has been tentatively almost quaint.”
Certainly, one thing Karp and Zamiska criticize is that “many business leaders, in meaningful ways, have, except for the occasional theatrical forays, are the most consequential social and cultural of our time. “I hate to challenge myself to debate.”
Of course, we’ve seen at least one business leader receive this instruction to be very serious in politics as Trump’s alliance Elon Musk is trying to remake the federal government through government efficiency. Masu.
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