Under threat of judicial review, UK.gov agrees to consultation before extending Palantir's NHS role beyond pandemic The UK government has caved at the threat of a judicial review into its £23m contract with controversial US AI firm Palantir in setting up the NHS COVID-19 datastore. In three key concessions the government has said it cannot offer firms like Palantir a long-term NHS role without consulting the public and that it would not …
One has to wonder [a] how they will be selected and [b] whether in any case 54 people can reliably represent an entire population of some 60M on a matter as important as this (whether we want state surveillance service providers processing our medical records). This is a real case for a referendum.
"...it cannot offer firms like Palantir a long-term NHS role without consulting the public and that it would not expand Palantir's work on the NHS datastore beyond COVID-19 without notifying the public"
After the contract was signed :/
When the guy in charge has such a "complicated" relationship with the truth and trust, that statement isn't worth the paper it's written on.
They just say this sort of stuff without caring that it's complete nonsense, because they know they can do whatever the hell they want.
This was the official response yesterday when a question was asked about Boris Johnson cheating on his ex-wife :
"He does believe in the wider principles of integrity and honesty. He acts with integrity and is honest".
Just in case you will never ever read this on the BBC:
Jenifer Arcuri’s new revelations about her affair with Boris Johnson have gone largely unreported by the BBC.
The story appears to have everything – sex, betrayal, abuse of power, lies told in high places – so, on the face of, it is somewhat surprising to find it covered only grudgingly, and at the margins of the BBC’s huge range of output.
It is, however, completely consistent with the corporation’s desperation to avoid a fight with the Government, and has roots going back far further.
What's needed isn't an inquiry into one particular contract. There need to be two, one into the role of AI in public decision making wide enough to cover its role in campaigning for votes and the other into recent history in contract awarding. And forget "citizen juries", they need judicial authority to summon witnesses.
> ... the government has now agreed not to extend Palantir's contract beyond the pandemic without consulting the public.
The "pandemic" will go on for many years yet.
Mostly because it isn't, and hasn't been for many months, a pandemic; it very quickly became apparent that it was endemic ... and would remain so.
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