France’s domestic intelligence agency will stop working with US AI giant Palantir, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday, as European countries increasingly doubt the credibility of the United States.
“We cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere,” Lecornu said in a social media video announcing 655 million euros ($760 million) of new public investment in the country’s AI development.
The decision by the Direction Generale de la Securite Interieure (DGSI) to end its contract with Palantir follows Washington’s move last week to cut off access to the AI firm Anthropic’s powerful Fable model for non-US users.
France should not “depend on the goodwill of some partners, who are able to close the access tap” to artificial intelligence, Lecornu said.
The Fable incident prompted calls for greater independence from the United States in AI development from candidates across the political spectrum for next year’s French presidential election.
Palantir’s French arm did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on Tuesday.
The company was co-founded by Peter Thiel, a right-wing Silicon Valley billionaire close to US President Donald Trump, with the backing of America’s CIA.
She has worked particularly with the US government to identify undocumented immigrants or targets in the US-Israel war against Iran.
Campaign groups have warned that the company’s products pose risks related to mass surveillance, infringement of individual freedoms and data protection.
But Palantir insists it simply offers powerful data processing services that can help surface bits of useful information during the deluge available to government agencies and large companies.
British lawmakers earlier this month demanded that the country’s National Health Service (NHS) end its contract with the American company.
“The reliance on a small number of US-based providers represents a clear vulnerability” that could leave public services “at the mercy of foreign actors,” the report by parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said.
The London mayor’s office also blocked an offer from the British capital’s Metropolitan Police to work with Palantir.
