In its early days, the AI initiative known as Project Maven had its fair share of skeptics at the Pentagon. Today, many of them are true believers. The rise of AI warfare speaks to the biggest moral and practical question there is: Who--or what--gets to decide to take a human life? And who bears that cost? In 2018, more than 3,000 Google workers protested the company's involvement in "the business of war" after finding out the company was part of Project Maven, then a nascent Pentagon effort to use computer vision to rifle through copious video footage taken in America's overseas drone wars. They feared Project Maven's AI could one day be used for lethal targeting. In my yearslong effort to uncover the full story of Project Maven for my book,, I learned that is exactly what happened, and that the undertaking was just as controversial inside the Pentagon. Today, the tool known as Maven Smart System is being used in US operations against Iran . How the US military's top brass moved from skepticism about the use of AI in war to true believers has a lot to do with a Marine colonel named Drew Cukor. In early September 2024, during the cocktail hour at a private retreat for tech investors and defense leaders, Vice Admiral Frank "Trey" Whitworth found his way to Drew Cukor. Now Project Maven's founding leader and his skeptical successor were standing face-to-face. Three years earlier, Whitworth had been the Pentagon's top military official for intelligence, advising the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and running one of the most sensitive and potentially lethal parts of any military process: targeting.

The deal will give Palantir sight of a trove of data about how the City of London operates. The deal will give Palantir sight of a trove of data about how the City of London operates. Sun 22 Mar 2026 12.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 22 Mar 2026 12.42 EDT Palantirâ s latest UK contract takes the AI and data analytics company into the heart of one of Britainâ s biggest industries: financial services, which accounts for 9% of the economy. The Miami-based company embedded its technology in the NHS in 2023, the police in 2024 and the military in 2025. Land and expand, they say in the tech industry. Palantir has followed the script building contracts worth more than £500m.

Palantir, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel (pictured), has been appointed for a three-month trial period. Palantir, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel (pictured), has been appointed for a three-month trial period. Sun 22 Mar 2026 12.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 22 Mar 2026 22.30 EDT Palantir is to be granted access to a trove of highly sensitive UK financial regulation data, in a deal that has prompted fresh concerns about the US AI companyâ s deepening reach into the British state, the Guardian can reveal. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has awarded Palantir a contract to investigate the watchdogâ s internal intelligence data in an effort to help it tackle financial crime, which includes investigating fraud, money laundering and insider trading. The Miami-based company, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel, has been appointed for a three-month trial, paying more than £30,000 a week to analyse the FCAâ s vast â data lakeâ, which could lead to a full procurement of an AI system.

At Palantir's Developer Conference, AI Is Built to Win Wars As business soars, Palantir is doubling down on a vision of AI built for battlefield advantage--and attracting customers who agree. The defense contractors, military officers, and corporate executives in attendance are unprepared for the weather; they'd assumed the previous day's mid-70s temperatures would hold. A cold rain turns to steady snowfall, and Palantir passes out heavy blankets. As people move between open-air pavilions, it looks like they were pulled from shipwrecks. To this self-selecting crowd, Palantir is delivering on its promises.

Meta Will Keep Horizon Worlds Alive in VR'for the Foreseeable Future' A day after saying it would shut down its metaverse, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced the service will remain available in VR--with limited support. One day after Meta announced it was shutting down Horizon Worlds in virtual reality, the company's chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, announced that it's reversing course. "I have a little bit of good news for you here," Bosworth said in a video AMA on Instagram. "We have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games, to support the fans who reached out." Meta initially sent an email to Horizon Worlds users on Tuesday saying it would end Horizon Worlds in VR on June 15 but keep the platform afloat on mobile.

Ties between the US tech giant Palantir and the United Kingdom government are coming under increased scrutiny following the arrest of former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Despite its public criticism of both Palantir and Mandelson, the UK government has entered into extensive contracts with the US tech giant, signing a defence contract worth 240 million pounds ($323m) in January. The contract was awarded to Palantir directly, while another, worth 330 million pounds ($444m) and involving the UK's Ministry of Health, was awarded in November 2023 following a bidding process. The latter contract's contents, campaigners say, remain heavily redacted . In addition to its role supporting US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which has resulted in killings and unlawful deportations, Palantir has partnered extensively with the Israeli military and its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

We can't let them hide behind their models From Gaza to Iran, the pattern is the same: precision weapons, chosen blindness, and dead children. There is an Israeli military strategy called the "fog procedure". First used during the second intifada, it's an unofficial rule that requires soldiers guarding military posts in conditions of low visibility to shoot bursts of gunfire into the darkness, on the theory that an invisible threat might be lurking. It's violence licensed by blindness. Shoot into the darkness and call it deterrence. With the dawn of AI warfare, that same logic of chosen blindness has been refined, systematized, and handed off to a machine.

"Ask Maps," rolling out today to Google Maps on mobile, lets you ask Gemini questions about locations and even to plan trips on your behalf. There's a new button in Google Maps: "Ask Maps." Google started rolling out this new generative AI feature today, a conversational, in-app tool that combines data from Maps with a user experience similar to the company's Gemini chatbot. It's designed to answer questions about locations and schedule routes in the navigation app. This is part of Google's overall strategy of adding Gemini to all its products.

Comments and other data left on a PDF detailing Homeland Security's proposal to build "mega" detention and processing centers reveal the personnel involved in its creation. A PDF that Department of Homeland Security officials provided to New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte's office about a new effort to build "mega" detention and processing centers across the United States contains embedded comments and metadata identifying the people who worked on it. The seemingly accidental exposure of the identities of DHS personnel who crafted Immigration and Customs Enforcement's mega detention center plan lands amid widespread public pushback against the expansion of ICE detention centers and the department's brutal immigration enforcement tactics. Metadata in the document, which concerns ICE's "Detention Reengineering Initiative" (DRI), lists as its author Jonathan Florentino, the director of ICE's Newark, New Jersey, Field Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations. In a note embedded on top of an FAQ question, "What is the average length of stay for the aliens?"

House Democrats are demanding answers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and urging it to halt rumored changes they say could undermine its mission. One of the US government's top scientific research labs is taking steps that could drive away foreign scientists, a shift lawmakers and sources tell WIRED could cost the country valuable expertise and damage the agency's credibility. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) helps determine the frameworks underpinning everything from cybersecurity to semiconductor manufacturing. Some of NIST's recent work includes establishing guidelines for securing AI systems and identifying health concerns with air purifiers and firefighting gloves. Many of the agency's thousands of employees, postdoctoral scientists, contractors, and guest researchers are brought in from around the world for their specialized expertise.