UNITED KINGDOM — Palantir co-founder and Chief Executive Alex Karp published a 22-point manifesto on X outlining his views on culture, national service and the use of artificial intelligence in weapons. The post, which has drawn more than 30 million views, is a summary of the 2025 book The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, co-authored by Karp and Nicholas Zamiska.

In the manifesto, Karp criticized the belief that all cultures are equal, called for universal national service, described the disarmament of Germany and Japan after World War Two as an "overcorrection," and backed the use of AI weapons. He also condemned the "ruthless exposure" of the private lives of public figures and argued that the age of nuclear deterrence is ending and will be replaced with deterrence built on AI.

Karp wrote that "Some cultures have produced 'wonders' while others are 'regressive and harmful'" and that "The lack of criticism of other cultures has created a 'hollow pluralism'." He also wrote that "The West resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity." On security, he wrote that "Protecting democracies requires 'hard power'" and warned that "Theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications will see the US lose ground to its adversaries."

Karp, who calls his company "anti-woke" and donated to the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, framed civic obligation as collective. "Defending democracy is a shared obligation," he wrote, adding that "National service should be 'a universal duty'."

Shannon Vallor, Chair of ethics of data and AI at Edinburgh University, said "Every alarm bell for democracy must ring" and that "Unelected men like Alex Karp are imposing their own 'grand narratives' of cultural superiority, militarised control, and public power without public accountability."

Palantir, which has a market valuation of $400bn (£297bn), is a major military contractor whose AI-enabled "war-fighting" technology is used by NATO, Ukraine and the United States. The company holds UK contracts with the National Health Service, the Ministry of Defence, the Financial Conduct Authority and 11 police forces, including a £300m contract to build a data platform for the NHS and a three-year, £240m Ministry of Defence contract for technology to support the "kill-chain" by fusing data to produce faster options for attacking an enemy target.

Health campaigner Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne said "Every day that the NHS continues this contract with Palantir makes our health system complicit in Palantir's violent operations, such as AI warfare, and deeply alarming ideology, which includes powering America and its allies to their 'innate superiority'." Palantir employs around 950 people in the United Kingdom, making up 17% of its global workforce. Peter Thiel, co-founder and chairman of Palantir, is a libertarian backer of Donald Trump.