Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says Only Washington Can Cap AI Liability: 'These Businesses Have to Be Nationalized'
Sep 21, 2026 1:45 PM
· YahooFinance
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With President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance chiming in on potential AI regulation in recent days, Palantir Technologies CEO and co-founder Alex Karp took his turn to comment on the topic on Thursday in a TV interview.
When it comes to artificial intelligence and potential regulation, Karp says it's a societal issue.
"You have to find a way to set reasonable guidelines," Karp told CNBC during an interview on "Squawk on the Street."
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Karp said the first line of defense is that you're liable for your own actions. The CEO said this means if you build something that can destroy 10% of the world, there are civil and criminal liabilities attached.
The first step is that if you disclose this, you need to share what you're going to do about it, Karp said. The CEO added that the second step is that if you're not going to be responsible, you have to get other people involved.
As one of the early AI leaders, Karp says Palantir has seen many things when it comes to AI safety. In the interview, he makes a case for and against AI regulation and what could be needed for the sector next.
Karp said Palantir's partners are "livid" — not over AI safety in the abstract, but over what they believe is the theft of their "alpha," his term for the know-how behind how a business is run. That know-how lands in a model, he said, and shows up next door at a competitor. "And they paid for it."
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The Palantir CEO offered up this analogy, which he said was the least vulgar from upset partners
"How can they tell me not to wear a condom?"
The line refers to enterprises being told not to use the safeguards that would keep their data out of frontier models.
Karp says that severe liability protection would be needed in this case, and that the U.S. government is the only one that can cap liability.
"The view that I believe they have is, these businesses have to be nationalized because if you don't nationalize it every single one of my clients is going to sue."
Karp said there is currently too much risk and the potential for unlimited liability.
"You're saying, what is the liability risk for destroying 10% of the company, 10% of the world."
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