'A machine can shoot, Manson reports, up to “ten times faster than an assassin.” This gives the “autonomy hawks” something like an erotic frisson: one source says that “there’s really nothing quite like seeing a machine aim,” explaining their sense of “an alien aspect, some otherworld[ly] feeling, I don’t want to say ‘religious,’ that’s not the right word.”'

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-project-maven-put-ai-into-the-kill-chain

#palantir
#killchain
#ai
#warfare
#projectmaven

undefined | Middle East war: Inside Palantir's Maven, the AI tool powering US strikes in Iran

Palantir Technologies’ Maven Smart System—an AI‑driven targeting platform originally launched as Project Maven in 2017—has become a central component of the U.S. military’s “Operation Epic Fury,” the joint U.S.–Israeli campaign that began with strikes on Iran on February 28. The system rapidly ingests and analyses massive streams of data from satellites, drones, radars, sensors and intelligence reports, automatically flagging potential threats such as enemy vehicles, buildings and weapons stockpiles. Integrated with Anthropic’s Claude AI, Maven provides commanders with real‑time targeting recommendations, while human operators retain final approval of lethal actions.

The deployment of Maven has drawn political attention. President Donald Trump praised Palantir on his Truth Social platform, even as the company’s shares fell 14 % after the announcement. The Department of Defense formally designated Maven as an “official programme of record,” signaling a long‑term commitment that is expected to be fully operational by the end of the current fiscal year. Palantir’s broader contracts with the U.S. government—including a recent $10 billion Army deal—have helped double its market value over the past year, pushing the firm’s valuation toward $360 billion.

Critics warn that the speed and automation of tools like Maven leave little time for independent verification, raising the risk of erroneous strikes. Senior Democrats in Congress have called for greater scrutiny of AI‑driven warfare platforms, while Palantir maintains that its software does not make lethal decisions autonomously and that humans remain responsible for target selection and approval. The debate highlights the tension between the military’s push for rapid, AI‑enhanced targeting capabilities and the need for safeguards to prevent accidental or unlawful engagements.

Read more: undefined

#palantirtechnologies #donaldtrump #anthropic #projectmaven #u.s.military

AI at war: Five things to know about Project Maven https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-war-maven.html

#USPolitics #ArtificialIntelligence #Military #Defense #ProjectMaven #EthicalAI

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/04/04/google-workers-find-its-a-different-era-for-activism-on-military-ai-xcxwbn/

Google Workers Find Military AI Activism Has Changed

#AI #Google #GoogleAI #AIEthics #GoogleDeepMind #GoogleGemini #Military #MilitaryAI #DefenseTech #Surveillance #Employees #ProjectMaven #Pentagon

qwant news | Palantir’s ’Workflow’ of AI-Directed Death

Palantir’s “Maven Smart System,” showcased in a Pentagon video, is an AI‑driven target‑and‑destroy platform that lets operators move a detection through a single visualization tool with a few mouse clicks. Once a target is identified, the system automatically advances it to a “course of action” (CoA) workflow, where AI suggests the optimal weapon and the operator can immediately execute the strike—all within the same interface. The Pentagon touts this as a revolutionary consolidation of what previously required eight or nine separate systems, promising faster and more efficient kill‑chain closure.

The company insists a human remains “in the loop,” making the final decision to fire, a claim echoed by Palantir’s UK head to the BBC. The rollout comes after Google abandoned its own Project Maven eight years earlier amid employee protests over creating a “Google‑Earth for war.” More recently, Anthropic publicly resisted Pentagon requests to weaponize its Claude AI, only to be slapped with a federal‑contract ban by former President Donald Trump, who framed the dissent as a betrayal. These tensions highlight growing unease about autonomous weapons and the potential for AI systems to operate with minimal human oversight.

In the wake of the United States‑Israel strike that unintentionally devastated an Iranian elementary school, journalists allege Maven was likely involved in selecting that target, though official denial remains absent. The system’s integration into NATO and its suspected role in the thousands of missile strikes during the ongoing Iran conflict raise serious questions about accountability and the moral ramifications of delegating lethal decisions to AI. Truthdig’s article concludes by reaffirming its commitment to independent, fact‑based journalism amid the turmoil.

Read more: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/palantirs-workflow-of-ai-directed-death/

#palantir #pentagon #projectmaven #nato

On the blood red carpet what are war mongers wearing?

#Pentagon struts in #Ai as #ProjectMaven tech by #Palantir & used #Claude by #Anthropic. Israel fashions ditto in #Iran, as well as in #Gaza and #Lebanon.
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/18/ai_warfare

(The military wing of GOP politics aim in Iran is: )
“maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct” - Pete Hegseth

“Need for Speed” in the kill-chain
https://theconversation.com/iran-war-shows-how-ai-speeds-up-military-kill-chains-278492

#Capitalism #militaryIndustrialComplex #Surveillance