Palantir CEO Alex Karp says French restrictions on US software are ‘backfiring’

Palantir chief executive Alex Karp said Wednesday that French regulatory restrictions, including limiting government use of US-made software, were proving counterproductive. Karp's argument follows France's recent decision to drop Palantir at its domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, in favor of French provider ChapsVision, over data sovereignty concerns. "These things are backfiring," he said, adding that "the regulatory environment is obviously not helping Europe or France." Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Karp said the problem was that sovereignty decisions were being made by people without the expertise to judge them. "You need to have regulation that actually helps. And to do that, you need to be a technical expert," he said. The eccentric executive cast his criticism as friendly, invoking the French proverb "qui aime bien chatie bien" -- spare the rod, spoil the child. "I care," he said. Karp reserved his sharpest language for what he described as sovereignty in name only: contracting non-US firms to deploy American or Chinese closed models. Read moreArtificial intelligence in Europe: Does advanced AI have a glass ceiling?...