Palantir co-founder, CEO Alexander Karp gets $1.1bn bumper payday in IPO year

CEO and co-founder of controversial AI and data analytics firm Palantir Alexander Karp raked in a total of $1.10bn following the company’s September IPO, filings have revealed. A regulatory listing showed he got $797.9m in options and $296.4m in stock on top of his regular measly salary of $1.1m in 2020. The total Karp …

[Eclectic Man]

AI

AI seems to be flavour of the month. There is the article on 'Big Tech' sponsoring research into AI ethics, and the 'AI adventure' game thing creating sexually NSFW responses for those mentioning children or even "4 melons". (Both current el Reg articles.)

I find the problem I have with AI is that when it comes to individual AI systems I have no idea how they work, and frankly, if they are intelligent enough (such as the AI machine that taught itself 'Go' and beat the human world champion) neither do the creators / programmers. Which would scare me a bit if I wasn't already maxed out being scared of Covid, Brexit, global warming, people stealing my pension fund and the possibility of yet another water leak in my flat that means I have to spend even more* on redecorating the downstairs flat's kitchen. (It is ok, I don't live in Downing Street, I am nothing to do with that 'redecoration'.)

Are other el Reg readers worried about AI and whether anyone actually understands it well enough to know what it is doing?

*I've just been billed for £300 (invoice 'INV0001' not a vat receipt as the 'builder' does not qualify for vat) for 'work including materials'.

[Chris G]

Re: AI

AI doesn't worry me nearly as much as many of those who wish to employ half baked possibly not fit for purpose AIs for almost every problem or function they don't already have a solution for, a fair percentage, even if they do have a working solution still want to replace it with an AI solution because AI....

You are not alone in not knowing how they work, few people employing 'AI' have much of an idea of what an AI is and whether or not what they think is an AI actually is, mostly the accurate part of the description is Artificial, the Intelligence is frequently questionable.

[Pascal Monett]

Re: AI

AI does not exist. Not in the original, science-fiction view of a thinking machine.

What we have today are statistical analysis machines. Check out Google's free Machine Learning crash course. Especially this page, The terms used include "linear regression", and the repeated use of the word "median".

That's statistics. Not AI.

[Al fazed]

Re: AI

Indeed as a long time Reg reader I have been watchig the spread of AI, which I prefer to use the initials to represent Artificial Idiocy.

To date (68 years old) I have met few if any intelligent humans. Sure we all have our moments of blinding common sense, but how many use their innate creativity to solve problems ? Most people dip in a shallow bag of aphorisms, like, this is going to hurt me more than it will you..... and there are plenty more like this still in circulation in the top layers of this so called "democracy".

In a world where there are many variations of the name for anything, what sort of arrogant twat thinks they have th capability to collect data and process it without bias ? Only bossy psychopathic tree climbing capitalist pig dogs need apply ?????

AH well, my old uni is currently running lectures on AI, one of the examples is the fucking ticketing machine system at a large cuntry house near Oxbog, which analyses (annal eyes) sales data so the owners can predict how to rake in more money from the punters........

Say no more........... Artificial what ?????

ALF

[Eclectic Man]

Re: AI - Update on my washing machine related leakage

It seems that the problem is actually that the waste pipe is partially blocked, so when the machine empties itself some of the water is forced up out of the waste pipe top and dribbles down the wall. I have instigated corrective action and poured the entire contents of a bottle of drain cleaner into said pipe, and have newspapers at the ready for if it overflows again.

My local hardware store sells water detectors for under washing machines, but a newspaper not only detects water leakage but more importantly absorbs it.

Oh well, hopefully this will sort it out. If not I'll have to get the plumber back.

[JassMan]

"Palantir largely carries out information analysis and processing work for the defence and intelligence communities..."

Maybe they get lots of goverment contracts, because otherwise the public would learn which ministers have cupboards full of skeletons.

Even so they must be getting an incredible number of £multimillion contracts to justify giving such an obscene sum to just 1 man.

[Al fazed]

wasters

The fact that some nutter at the AI company thinks that a big fat fucking wage packet makes common sense, leaves me with one huge question,

Intelligence ? WTF ?

If even the UK Intelligence snoops are shit at their job, what chance has a company got where it's head honcho is dreaming of babes in surf on a trip to Mars in his flying fucking car.........

Yes Arseifacial Inellegant........... sicko's

[Charlie Clark]

It's just more: it's not what you know, but who you know. The polling/electioneering data slant is a great door opener as most politicians would sell their soul (if they still had one) for better polling data.

Now that we have computers powerful enough modelling based on statistical extrapolation has gone from being merely fashionable to seemingly essential and the provisos that should accompany such things ignored. The models are now so detailed that they increase the illusion of control. Even though we know forecasts don't give us control of the weather it's difficult to shake off the feeling they do.