Public sector workers expressed “deep concern” after the Coventry municipal council signed an artificial intelligence contract of £ 500,000 per year with the American data technology company Palantir.
The agreement is the first of its kind between a British local authority and the company based in Denver, which provides technology to the Israel Defense Forces (FDI) and to help Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
The contract follows a pilot program in the advice for children’s services, in particular by using AI for the transcription of the case note and to summarize the files of social workers. The Council plans to extend the Palanting system to processes to provide support for children with special educational needs.
The director general of the Council, Julie Nugent, said that she was aimed at “improving the integration of internal data and the provision of services” and “exploring the transformative opportunities for artificial intelligence”.
Palantir already has a number of public sector contracts in the United Kingdom, in particular by providing an AI to help fight against organized crime in Leicestershire and build the new Federated NHS data platform. Keir Starmer visited the company’s Washington office in February with its director general and co-founder, Alex Karp. Palantant was also co -founded by Peter Thiel, the billionaire Paypal who helped finance Camapign electoral of Trump in 2016.
The unions representing teachers and other council workers said that the agreement raises “serious ethical questions”, and the independent advisor Grace Lewis called on the Council to immediately cancel the contract “and to ensure that the £ 500,000 are spent here in our community”.
“It is indefensible that the Council concluded a contract with Palant, a company infamous for its role in the supply of weapons and monitoring of the FDI and its role in the privatization of the NHS, at a time when the Council made reductions of the public and voluntary sector,” said Lewis.
Coventry recently started using Palantir AI to filter the requests for household support funds. A senior official told a meeting of advisers in June: “There are very few areas that would not benefit from artificial intelligence.” A meeting advisor replied: “It looks a bit like Big Brother.”
In a letter to Nugent, the joint secretary of the Coventry branch of the National Education Union, Nicky Downes, underlined the use by palantant of AI in surveillance and weapons systems, and raised concerns concerning his collection and the storage of data on citizens, in particular with regard to his supply of predictive police systems.
“There are serious ethical questions about the business practices of Palantir Foundry, who is a subsidiary of Palantir,” said Downes. “There are also questions about its use and supply of personal data. We question the supply process, in particular with regard to ethical considerations and risk assessments that have led to the decision to spend £ 500,000 for an AI package of Palantir Foundry. “
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Nugent replied: “We have appointed Palantant for 12 months to explore the transformative opportunities for artificial intelligence by performing proof of concepts in a number of our key areas. This will create our profitability analysis for more future investment and our global AI approach. We understand that the ethical implications of AI are paramount importance.
A spokesperson for Palantir said: “We are delighted to help the Coventry Harness IA municipal council to improve the services they provide to the public. Technology offers enormous potential, such as allowing social workers and professionals special educational needs to devote less time to paperwork and more time to directly support children who are vulnerable or have special needs.” The first signs are extremely promising, showing the potential for a significant reduction in the administrator burden. “”
They declared that Palantre was not a supporter and had embarked on a number of American government administrations since he started working with the Ministry of Internal Security in 2010.
A council spokesman said he was exploring how AI could help improve services and make them more effective. “As part of this initiative, we assess a range of AI and technological partners, including Palant, to support our AI objectives … while we continue to assess the value of AI for future investments, the maintenance of data protection and solid governance standards will remain our absolute priority.”
He said the contract had been awarded in accordance with standard supply procedures and satisfied its “rigorous safety and compliance requirements”.
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