"I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible," wrote Peter Thiel in 2009. Free-market capitalism has failed so badly that a people armed with the right to vote will no longer wear it, reasoned the billionaire founder of PayPal.
Today his artificial intelligence company, Palantir, is running secretive technology used by the NHS to track the coronavirus outbreak. Palantir, which in its 16 year history has never broken even, despite substantial funding from the CIA, is doing the job for the token fee of £1.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data are tools that, if used right, will enhance human freedom – and until we get a vaccine they may be one of the most powerful weapons we have to fight the coronavirus. But used wrongly they will lead to 21st century power-asymmetries so vast that they make the analogue techniques of Stalinism and Nazism look medieval.
