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a16z Podcast · 4 min · Mar 12, 2026

AI firms need a shared plan for privacy, jobs and battlefield use

Alex Karp says tech firms should set a shared agenda before Washington does, tackling privacy, jobs and battlefield use. He sees prosperity and safety as the concerns any agreement must address.

Alex Karp

Alex Karp is cofounder and CEO of Palantir.

Co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and has run it as CEO, selling data and AI software to governments.

  • Erik Torenberg, Host · General partner, Andreessen Horowitz

    Helped build Product Hunt; founded On Deck, Village Global and Turpentine.

About this segment

Alex Karp says tech firms should set a shared agenda before Washington does, tackling privacy, jobs and battlefield use. He sees prosperity and safety as the concerns any agreement must address.

From “Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit”, Mar 12, 2026. Watch the full episode

“the two issues Americans care about are their prosperity and their safety.”
Alex Karpat 20:46 · a16z Podcast20:46

Takeaways

  1. Organize early, as Hollywood did with its rating system.
  2. Address job impacts and Fourth Amendment protections.
  3. Bridge tech and defense over battlefield use and warfighter safety.
Watch 4:20 from 18:21

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 5:35Military technology helps deter attacks and bring warfighters home5:03
  2. 10:16AI firms risk nationalization if they ignore public concerns5:35
  3. 25:28America’s edge is cultivating unconventional talent6:21

  4. 18:21AI firms need a shared plan for privacy, jobs and battlefield use4:20

  5. 22:33Defense founders should meet warfighters and know their limits3:07Up next

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 18:33

    War continues to lead on AI, because I think this has been top of mind for everyone in the room for the last 48 hours, our adversaries are looking at, you know, contracting wars that are playing out in press releases. You know, what is your view on how we can ensure that we win this AI race against the PRC? If you, if you're giving advice to all the founders and CEOs of, you know, the, the, the, well, the first thing, part of what I'm doing and part of the reason, I mean, besides your charm and importance, what part of reason I want to be here is I want my reputation and the value. You always have reputations. My reputation, which I'm not even saying the reputation is true, but in my case, like I'm viewed as the batshit crazy guy who is often telling you something you don't want to hear and you may not like, but is probably right.

  2. 19:21

    And that's true. So, yeah. And that's why I want you to send this first step. We have to, they're not understanding the stakes. And what I, nothing's going to happen until people understand the stakes this will affect you now then the question is like what hollywood did is hollywood got together the whole rating system was hollywood realized if we don't do rating ratings washington's going to and washington is going to butcher it and let's even say washington doesn't want to butcher it but like it it doesn't understand the metier so the first step is Everybody, and I'm already on the phone with people saying, okay, great, I understand your issue, but you realize the wolves are at the gate and they already have tasted blood.

  3. 20:10

    The second step is we have to find ways where we get together and say, okay, like if you just want to go through the issues. Yes, there are, you know, using technologies in the context of eviscerating Fourth Amendment rights in America is something left and right in this country actually don't want. It's a caricature to believe that either side wants it. There are people on the—honestly, I'm in private rooms.

  4. 20:37

    There are people on the left who don't care about these issues, who pretend to do it in public. But there are people—and there are people on the right who pretend not to care, who do care. Both parties have significant coalitions and the American people care. And it's in our constitution. But then you have to be very granular about what's going to happen on the battlefield because the two issues Americans care about are their prosperity and their safety.

  5. 21:04

    So if the two things that Silicon Valley has to figure out is, how are we going to ethically talk about what's going to happen to our economy. In my view, you could create a lot of prosperity with trade-shaped people. Okay, but what is going to happen to the white-collar workers and what are we going to do? That's one issue. And then we're not going to agree, but we have to have something like we're going to do these initiatives just like Hollywood did.

  6. 21:38

    And then you're going to have to have a discussion on the battlefield where, you know, the rebuttable presumption, meaning it doesn't happen, is that we are going to do the maximal amount to make sure our warfighters come home safely. And if you are sitting in Silicon Valley making an argument that somehow would eviscerate that, or conversely, you're not able to understand what Silicon Valley is saying, meaning there's going to have to be a medium. Without going into details on all these breakdowns, because I was in the middle of it and I want to stay in the middle of it. There are substantive issues and there are cultural issues. If we could get rid of the cultural misunderstanding, we could get pretty close to agreements here. But you're dealing with worlds that never, ever, ever talk and don't have an ability to talk to each other.

  7. 22:27

    Yeah. Well, and you've been building a bridge between these cultures for 20 years. I mean,