“Companies have a problem that it is very difficult for them to link what they produce to a higher mission, and therefore they can not judge exactly where they should talk and where they may not need to talk,” Karp said. CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Aspen Ideas Festival this week. “Then there are just general issues: if you are going to use our product for things we do not support, we feel we need to talk openly.” The call for companies to take a stand on social issues has only grown in recent years, most recently on abortions following the overthrow of the US Supreme Court last week. Karp, who noted that he was in favor of the option, said the Palantir had always “allowed people to leave the states or go to places where their rights are protected, and we pay for people and their families to move if they need access in medical care or abortions “. Karp also referred to how different views have played out in his own company with Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, one of the largest donors to Republican candidates in recent years. Thiel was also on the executive committee of the transition team for President Donald Trump, whom Carp has criticized both publicly and privately. “One of the problems in this country is that there are not enough people like Peter and me; we have been fighting over things for 30 years,” Carp said. “You have to take the political dialogue and after the business dialogue we tend to have similar assumptions, but not always the same interpretation. . I really like talking to Peter in areas where I think he is the best in the world, and I do not agree politically “. Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir arrives ahead of a “Tech For Good” meeting at the Hotel Marigny in Paris on May 15, 2019, to discuss good behavior for the tech giants. Bertrand Guay | AFP | Getty Images Carp acknowledged that while he “got into trouble” for some of the things he said publicly about Trump, it was also the knowledge gained from talking to people like Thiel that led him to believe that Trump was going to win in 2016. “I think this is a huge problem in our society; I would like to hear what someone else is thinking, and by the way I think I’m right, so if you have your argument we can disagree,” he said. “I think a lot of my progressive friends have a little bit of an inferiority complex – if you’re right, why do you care about having a dialogue with someone who’s wrong? I like that.” “I have very strong views, prove me wrong, I would love to hear it,” he said. As companies are criticized by politicians for sharing views they disagree with, as in the case of Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSadis, a company like Palantir that has much of its business with the public sector and governments. similar recoil. Although state-owned contracts did not stop SpaceX CEO Elon Musk from criticizing a permanent chairman, Karp said part of the issue came from companies that speak openly about issues that are not in their general interest. “We have all these people telling me I should not talk publicly about a lot of issues and I talk freely about all sorts of things that could get me in trouble and I think our customers are very tolerant of that,” Karp said. . “But they also know that I’m in business; the most important issues at the moment are issues in which I have little experience.” Karp said these questions are: “What will the world look like if our opponents win or if we win? Under what conditions will the software be implemented? Will this software steal our civil liberties? How can this software protect our civil liberties? “ “On these issues, I speak openly all the time,” he said. Revelation: NBCUniversal News Group is the media partner of the Aspen Ideas Festival.
