Colorado Republicans in the state legislature would like to think that constraints on surveillance technology could be that rare bipartisan topic that wins them support from Democrats. SB-071, sponsored by Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson (R-Colorado Springs), certainly moves in the right direction, placing limits on police use of surveillance technology such as facial recognition software and body cams. But if conservatives want to bring back hints of their libertarian past, why are so many of them lamenting the move of Palantir Technologies Inc. from Denver to Miami?
The Gazette’s primary editorial Feb. 25, “Palantir’s Departure is Colorado’s Wake-Up Call,” highlighted the fact that the $450 billion company founded by Alex Karp in 2003 provided $178 million a year in economic output to the state. The editorial made a point of Karp saying Colorado’s view of A.I. was as arcane as the EU’s. The editorial did not mention the company’s client list, including every U.S. intelligence agency, the Israeli Defense Forces and Mossad, U.S. Special Forces, ICE and DHS, and several developing-nation intelligence agencies.
Palantir uses A.I. tools to weave together “situational awareness” of everything from battlefields to protests, to help its customers decide on optimal responses. It does not merely generate widescale pictures of conflict to aid human commanders, it also helps in implementing the decisions that result from its studies. That includes a dedicated tool used for Israel’s assault on Gaza. There simply is no way to paint Palantir’s technology as something that serves the interests of peace or diplomacy.
Palantir chairman and co-founder Peter Thiel has always been a big Trump supporter. Karp was a conservative Democrat when Palantir was founded, but publicly deplored Democrats for not being “patriotic” enough to support indiscriminate use of A.I. for fighting first-strike war. In a 2025 interview with Wired magazine’s Steven Levy, Karp belittled the Palantir employees who left the company for moral reasons, and said that woke politics constituted a “cult.” In a Nov. 10, 2025, op-ed column for The New York Times, Michelle Goldberg pondered Karp’s reason for such a shift in views, concluding it was based solely on material self-interest.
Members of the Trump cabinet are adamant in their demands that A.I. tools be provided to the government without any of the safety guardrails which A.I. companies themselves proposed in 2023. Anthropic Inc., a company whose “Claude” tool still tried to abide by some safety standards, was taken to task Feb. 24 by War Department head Pete Hegseth, who called Claude “woke A.I.” He demanded that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei allow the Pentagon unfettered use of its technology – with no safeguards against use for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons – or Hegseth would cancel the contract and declare Anthropic a supply-chain risk. Faced with the possible ruination of his company, Amode nonetheless held firm, making Anthropic the last of its peers to hold out on allowing the military unrestricted use of its AI technology – Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI have agreed to the terms set by Hegseth’s Department of War.
Most Large Language Model AI tools from this point forward are part of the surveillance state. And that’s where Palantir thrives.
Even though Karp himself lives in a New Hampshire compound, his company’s move to Miami fits in with the DeSantis “Florida Man” image. Karp no doubt harbored some petulance in announcing the move soon after protesters targeted Palantir’s Aurora headquarters. So be it. Colorado does not need a company like Palantir.
Loring Wirbel is on the Bulletin’s board of directors. The views expressed here are his alone and he is not paid for his writing. He studied surveillance technologies as an editor for Smartbook Blog and EE Times.