UK urged to end NHS contract with US AI firm Palantir

British lawmakers called on Wednesday for the government to end a contract between the country’s National Health Service and AI giant Palantir, warning of an over-reliance on US data providers.

‘Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector represents an unacceptable point of weakness,’ the parliamentary Commons Science, Innovation & Technology committee said in a report.

Their conclusions were ‘not ideologically motivated or driven by concerns about the quality of their products,’ it added.

But ‘reliance on a small number of US-based providers represents a clear vulnerability’, which could leave public services ‘at the mercy of foreign actors,’ the report said.

Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel, a right-wing Silicon Valley billionaire close to US President Donald Trump, with support from America’s CIA overseas spying service.

It has notably worked with the US government to identify undocumented immigrants or targets in the US-Israel war on Iran.

Campaign groups have warned the company’s products pose risks related to mass surveillance, infringements on individual freedoms and data protection.

In recent years, Palantir has pushed to further penetrate the European market.

The British MPs called on the government to use a break clause next year to end the £330-million ($443 million) contract signed in 2023.

‘The UK can and should be aiming for technology sovereignty in critical parts of our public sector and supporting domestic alternatives through smarter procurement,’ committee Chair Chi Onwurah said.

The committee proposed that the government should either look for an alternative UK provider or develop its own in-house system.

The NHS says on its website that the contract contains multiple measures ‘to mitigate the risk of lock-in to the supplier’.

Palantir’s UK head, Louis Mosley, said: ‘The committee has decided to put the politics of the playground before public services, arguing for the rejection of technology that is proven to deliver more NHS operations, less crime and better military capability.’

According to the Guardian daily, committee member Martin Wrigley said US authorities could evoke a US law to force a tech company to disclose information.

This could apply to a Palantir deal with the UK’s financial crime-busting watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, which is under trial, Wrigley said.

But Palantir denied the report, saying due to tight encryption ‘it is not technically possible for Palantir to respond to such a request without the FCA’s direct involvement’.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the London mayor’s office told AFP that a two-year, £50-million contract with Palantir to work with the Metropolitan police had been blocked.

‘The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) were not satisfied that the process followed by the Met adequately ensured or demonstrated value for money,’ the spokesman said.

The Met police said it regretted the decision as Palantir’s ‘technology has shown it can save much more than it costs and that it can improve performance.’

source: AFP

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