Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI or better referred to as Peter Thiel, millionaire, libertarian, technological guru and founder of Palantir, says that artificial intelligence for video surveillance is " a totalitarian and communist technology”.

Every time Peter Thiel speaks, he leaves no one indifferent.

The controversial millionaire Silicon Valley guru, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, and member of the Board of Directors of Facebook, has assured that people should be more concerned with artificial intelligence surveillance, than the general artificial intelligence (AGI) itself.

Artificial intelligence for surveillance is the technology that is used to monitor and collect in a massive way the data of citizens; from their physical appearance, to the places through which they move.

Facial recognition or the use of biometric data such as how to walk or move to identify people, are some examples.

Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI

In this way, with the excuse of security, all kinds of information are collected from millions of people that can be used in multiple different ways, some of them can pose a threat to the freedom of individuals and democracy.

On the other hand, the Artificial General Intelligence or general artificial intelligence in Spanish, comes to be a superior state of what we currently know as artificial intelligence.

A machine with this technology could think, learn, understand and apply its reasoning when solving problems.

AGI has characteristics similar to those of the human brain, that is, it has the ability to perceive and understand the world as we do. And not only that, but to make decisions based on that perception and understanding of what surrounds you.

For many people this may sound like science fiction, or a dystopian future in the purest Terminator or Matrix style. But really, there are still quite a few years for this type of artificial intelligence to be a reality.

Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI

For this reason, Thiel warns that surveillance AI should now be a source of concern for citizens around the world. This is what he said at a recent event in Miami, in which he has even declared that surveillance AI is”a totalitarian and communist technology".

Those who are concerned about AGI are not " paying attention to what really matters,” Thiel said during his talk, adding that governments will use AI-powered facial recognition technology to control people.

Thiel, a well-known libertarian activist and supporter of former President Donald Trump, is probably referring to the Chinese government, which is openly known for using technology to massively monitor its citizens.

An example of this is the immense network of CCTV security cameras placed throughout the country. In fact, in the Chinese city of Chongqing-the most watched city in the world— the ratio is one camera per almost 6 inhabitants.

But not only that, the Asian country also has a social credit system in the purest Black Mirror style, and a high-tech surveillance system, implemented in cities such as Xinjiang, where a large number of Uighurs, a Muslim minority community, live under tight control of the Beijing government.

Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI

The international community has repeatedly denounced the human rights violations committed by the Chinese government against this community. The New York Times revealed in a report the “virtual fences " in which many of these people lived.

Using an app installed on mobile phones, they monitor anyone they consider suspicious, such as making long trips abroad or using an "unusual” amount of electricity.

However, China is not the only country that uses technology to monitor its citizens. The United States does, too, and Peter Thiel himself has a lot to do with it.

Thiel is the founder of Palantir, an American software technology company specialized in big data. This company has worked closely with the U.S. government in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on security and counterterrorism issues.

One of Palantir's first jobs was for the NSA (the National Security Agency of the United States), and involved the development of its system called XKEYSCORE.

Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI

This software consists of a search engine capable of acquiring emails, chats, search histories, location, photos, documents, that is to say, practically everything of a person, only knowing his name or his phone number.

Today, interestingly, Palantir is valued at about 48,000 million dollars. As journalist Marta Peirano says in her book El enemigo conoce el sistema, among its first investors was the CIA who, through its In-QTel fund, injected 2 million dollars into the company of the former Paypal founder.

And not only that, despite Thiel's alarmist statements about the power of surveillance AI as a "totalitarian and communist" technology, his company has developed data tracking technology for intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies, such as the CIA itself, the FBI and the U.S. military.

Another example of the relationship between Thiel's surveillance technology and the US, is the collaboration since 2014, of Palantir and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).

Peter Thiel Palantir founder criticises video surveillance AI

The Silicon Valley company developed the software for the government organization to collect and store detailed information about undocumented immigrants prior to deportation raids.

However, as this Bloomberg research documented, on many occasions the algorithm and database of the system used by the government organization and developed by Palantir, often failed and involved discriminatory bias.

Many Latino youth were arbitrarily detained because the system claimed they belonged to street gangs.

Thiel is right about one thing, maybe it's too early to be alarmed by a superior artificial intelligence capable of behaving like human beings. Depends on who you ask, the horizon is at 30, 50 and even 100 years view.