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▲ slowin a day ago

That's not the only example discussed. Anthropic also partners with the Palantir-like Samdesk:

> In a wide-ranging conversation about threat monitoring and analysis, the interview also touches on monitoring activists. “Last year we had an executive travel into a major city when we received some intelligence through Samdesk about a planned protest,” Ellison said. The originally scheduled protest was moved up due to permitting issues. “Samdesk gave us about 60 minutes of advanced notice that the protest organizers had moved the timeline,” Ellison explained. “That extra hour was critical. Without it our executives would have departed their meetings, they would have ran right into the heart of the disruption.”

So they're monitoring activists outside of Anthropic's systems.

▲embedding-shape a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Without it our executives would have departed their meetings, they would have ran right into the heart of the disruption

Oh no, The Executives might have been exposed to the real world! Why aren't people thinking more about The Executives and what dangers they must face?! Good thing we can systematically monitor every other human being so The Executives don't have to see these terrorists on our streets.

▲SR2Z 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, obviously nothing bad ever happens when someone walks out into an emotional crowd of people who hate them.

▲laimewhisps 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Bad for who? I absolutely want people violating my rights to be confronted, regularly.

▲SR2Z 19 hours ago | parent [-]

How are your rights being violated?

I'm sure you have a solid and thought-out answer that justifies such a casual attitude towards violence.

▲customguy 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> such a casual attitude towards violence.

How is protest violence?

▲Ancapistani 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’m all for protesting, but surely you can agree that there is heightened risk if a person is in close proximity to people who oppose them strongly enough to act.

The whole purpose of a protest is to cause behavioral change; their hustling them out the back door is a success.

▲SR2Z 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do protests ever lead to violence? Are you being obtuse or do you believe this is actually safe?

▲customguy 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

All sorts of things can lead to violence, including a failure to protest. With enough weasel words, anything can sound reasonable, to people who don't pay attention to that stuff. So?

▲defrost 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Does driving a car ever lead to violence? Are you being obtuse or do you believe this is actually safe?

▲deaux 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> How are your rights being violated?

Surveillance capitalism.

> I'm sure you have a solid and thought-out answer that justifies such a casual attitude towards violence.

The ones with a casual attitude towards violence are those executives. Facebook leadership showed an incredibly casual attitude towards the genocide in Myanmar in which their platform played a huge role. Their purchases of doomsday bunkers further help show their attitude towards violence.

▲laimewhisps 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm being surveilled and profiled by these companies. Let their CEOs feel maximum heat.

▲ 3 hours ago | parent [-]
[deleted]
▲urams a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Palantir-like"

I guess you've chosen to do the editorializing for the writers in lieu of their presence here.

▲culi 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well they're also actually partnering with Palantir too. Claude was the model integrated into their Maven system that helped the US military determine targets in Iran (including the Minab elementary school)

▲cma a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Explain, it looks like samdesk is in a more narrow domain but overlapping and very related methods and business. Un-palantir-like seems like it would be a stronger editorialization.

▲bri3d a day ago | parent | next [-]

Palantir sell consulting services ("forward deployed engineering") around graph and map database platforms, using data supplied by customers. Some of their customers ask them to make surveillance aggregation systems, others ask them to make totally banal and random enterprise software (this is why you commonly see freak-outs around hospitals buying "Palantir," for example; usually they are operating as consultants making some kind of medical records warehousing system owned by the customer).

Samdesk provide risk analytics using traditional risk analysis investigation and research, which they have now welded an "AI platform" to, like everyone does these days. They aggregate crime and protest data to make a map of "places your employees might be at risk" and sell it to companies.

Samdesk would be a Palantir _customer_ if they liked parting with their money, not a competitor; Palantir operate at a much "lower level" and don't do the data collection or research on their own.

▲urams a day ago | parent | prev [-]

If by "overlapping and very related methods" you mean "use any form of data analysis whatsoever" then, yup, they are basically the same company.

▲cma 18 hours ago | parent [-]

If I heard Palantir-like I wouldn't assume something like a perfect mirror competitor company.

▲laimewhisps a day ago | parent | prev [-]

They are literally a Palantir competitor: https://www.samdesk.io/about-us

▲urams a day ago | parent | next [-]

Weird that they don't compare themselves to Palantir then!

https://imgur.com/a/eKAQKSN

▲laimewhisps a day ago | parent [-]

Why would you take any of these companies at their word? They know Palantir is toxic.

▲urams 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Your 4D chess model of their thinking is that the risk they run of mentioning a direct competitor, that their potential customers would also be considering, is so great that the value of that comparison is dwarfed by the costs of the risk, so they don't do it. This is some next level strategic thinking.

I have to wonder, though, why doesn't Palantir mention them? https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apalantir.com+samdesk

They seem to mention actual competitors: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apalantir.com+c3

Given your 4D chess logic, they really should be mentioning all their competitors to poison their wells.

▲laimewhisps 20 hours ago | parent [-]

This isn't as complicated as you're making it. Both companies market themselves as surveillance tools for oppressive regimes. Flock is similar. Do they have exactly the same business model? No. But their brand is spying on the public and protecting those in power.

▲urams 19 hours ago | parent [-]

"Motte? Meet Bailey."

> Both companies market themselves as surveillance tools for oppressive regimes.

Look at some of these "surveillance tools" that they are marketing to "oppressive regimes". Their website brags about these deeply oppressive surveillance features:

- Identifying material threats to your workforce - Integration with Concur and your HRIS

Look at some of the "oppressive regimes" they sell to, such as the evil Amnesty International: https://imgur.com/a/U4Zef3x

▲laimewhisps 19 hours ago | parent [-]

We're literally commenting on an article where this company tracked anti-AI activists and Anthropic actioned on that.

▲urams 19 hours ago | parent [-]

We're literally commenting on an article where Samdesk flagged a public protest to Anthropic security and Anthropic employees chose to not go by it. The absolute EVIL of a public protest being avoided by people is UNSPEAKABLE. That a company would ever even consider offering information about public protests to people is OPPRESSIVE.

▲laimewhisps 16 hours ago | parent [-]

Unironically yes.

▲urams 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Unironically oppressive: https://www.actiontogetherwest.org/bayarea

Unironically oppressive: https://indivisiblesf.org/events

Unironically oppressive: https://aroc.herokuapp.com/events/

Per you.

▲laimewhisps an hour ago | parent [-]

Again, tracking anti-AI protests to help AI executives avoid being held responsible for their company's actions is oppressive. I don't care what PR this company does to try to whitewash its image. Their actions speak louder than their propaganda.

▲crimsoneer a day ago | parent | prev [-]

This is not at all what Palantir OR SamDesk does. SamDesk processes and sells data (eg, has agreements with various news/social media websites etc and converts that to a nice API of events). Palantir sells software to use all sorts of data, including stuff like SamDesk (hence why I suspect plenty of Palantir customers are ALSO SamDesk customers). They're complimentary rather than competing products.

▲brightball a day ago | parent | prev [-]

When activists threaten to and follow through with killing people, demand is created.

We are 1 year out from Charlie Kirk being shot on a college campus, in case reminders are needed.

Many dark corners of the internet encourage and celebrate this type of thing more and more.

▲croes a day ago | parent | next [-]

Why emphasize Charlie Kirk‘s death?

What about Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark killed earlier in the same year?

It’s still people like Kirk who are against effective gun control.

“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment,”

▲brightball 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Why Charlie?

Because tomorrow is 1 year to the day and it’s on my mind.

Hortman? Agreed. Much more attention needs to be paid to why she was killed less than a week after breaking from her party to vote for something on Trumps agenda.

▲defrost 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The far right Christian evangelist that shot Hortman was a an anti-abortion Trump supporter who shot another Minnesota legislator the same day and had papers indicating he had others targeted in addition to perhaps wanting to shoot up a No Kings protest.

His "confession" letter was rambling and nonsensical, his motivation appeared to be a belief that killing at least four democrats (any four) would be enough to shift the balance of power in the state.

▲brightball 16 hours ago | parent [-]

Thus far, the only motive given is a confession that's been discredited and various associations to paint him in one light or another depending on the news you read.

If you follow the money, a picture starts to form.

June 9, 2025 - Melissa Hortman broke from House Democrats and cast the deciding vote to remove Medicaid/Medicare benefits from illegal immigrants. She was the only House Democrat to vote yes; the bill passed 68–65.

https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-budget-deal-undocumente...

June 14, 2025 - Hortman was killed, along with her husband Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/minnesota-lawmakers-ma...

June 15, 2025 - Her killer, Vance Boelter, was caught near Green Isle, Minnesota, after a roughly 43-hour manhunt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/minnesota-lawmakers-ma...

June 20, 2025 - News first broke that Boelter claimed Tim Walz asked him to kill Hortman and others. The claim was not found credible. The full letter was released with the federal indictment on July 15, 2025; prosecutors called it a fantasy and said they found no evidence supporting it.

https://www.startribune.com/vance-boelter-letter-klobuchar-w...

December 18, 2025 - The DOJ announced investigations into Minnesota Medicaid fraud, saying it was examining 14 Medicaid-funded programs and said more than half of about $18 billion spent since 2018 was likely stolen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/minnesota-fraud-scanda...

December 23, 2025 - Nick Shirley first posted on X about Somali-run Minnesota daycare fraud, highlighting Quality Learning Center and claiming it received $1.9 million in CCAP funds in 2025.

https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2003542404440404302 (5.4 million views)

December 26, 2026 - Shirley posted the full 42-minute video, I Investigated Minnesota’s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal, visiting about 10 Somali-run centers and claiming more than $110 million in fraud in one day.

https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2004642794862961123 (144.1 million views)

January 5, 2026 - Walz dropped his reelection campaign amid the fraud controversy and federal pressure. He said he would stay in office and focus on the work in front of him.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/05/us/minnesota-child-care-fraud...

February 25, 2026 - The U.S. government announced it was pausing Medicaid support to Minnesota due to fraud. Vice President JD Vance and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz announced a temporary halt of about $259 million in Medicaid payments.

https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-medicaid-funding-fraud-...

March 4, 2026 - It was publicized that members of the Walz administration were aware of and ignored reports of the fraud as early as 2019, in a House Oversight Committee interim report released the same day Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison testified. A longer final report followed on June 8, 2026.

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/house-oversight-commi...

May 21, 2026 - DOJ announced charges against 15 defendants in more than $90 million in Minnesota Medicaid and related fraud, including the first new childcare-provider cases after the April raids.

https://www.twincities.com/2026/05/21/minnesota-fraud-new-ch...

▲ 3 hours ago | parent [-]
[deleted]
▲laimewhisps 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's funny that you say that about Hortman when it was Kirk who broke from the pro-Israel party line and was almost immediately eliminated. Also why are you calling him Charlie? Did you personally know him?

▲brightball 17 hours ago | parent [-]

His name is Charlie Kirk. I don't always use people's full names to refer to them?

▲laimewhisps an hour ago | parent | next [-]

It's generally considered parasocial to call famous people you don't know by their first name.

▲ 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
▲laimewhisps a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Pressure on powerful people is good for society. Anyone making life or death decisions for the rest of us should have their own life on the table as well.

Charlie Kirk is irrelevant to this conversation. No one has been convicted in his assassination and it's unlikely that it was "activism" since no one has claimed that. He's a guy who said stuff many people found offensive, he also happened to cross a nation state known for assassinations and subterfuge shortly before he was shot.

▲SoftTalker a day ago | parent [-]

I'm only vaguely familiar with Charlie Kirk and his messaging but assassination is never a valid response to being offended.

▲thephyber a day ago | parent | next [-]

> The Democrat Party believes everything that God hates. Like, we’re dealing with maggots, vermin, and swine here. This is not — these are not good people, they’re not even a little bit good.[1]

He also called for the death of Biden (because he was a "tyrant") and all surgeons of transgender people.

If he was merely trying to be offensive, then he succeeded.

If, however, he was trying to make someone fear enough for their life to preemptively defend himself from someone claiming to speak for God + using the same dehumanizing words that have preceded multiple genocides before, then he succeeded.

A "valid" response entirely depends on what you think he was apart of. If you think he was only involved in good faith debates on college campuses and getting out the vote, then obviously shooting the guy was unjustified. But he wasn't only that, so we have to struggle with what his legacy actually was and what might have driven someone to pick up a gun against him.

My point isn't to justify his killing. It's to point out that we need to learn from history so we don't blindly repeat it.

[1] https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-refer...

▲brightball 19 hours ago | parent [-]

His entire life is on video. Please pull direct quotes for any of that.

I watched in the aftermath of his death as all of these horrible things he supposedly said were paraded around. Every one was manipulated nonsense.

The machine hated Charlie for telling the truth and people were listening.

▲Ancapistani 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don’t think the point of GP’s post was to claim one way or the other; rather it’s saying that it’s important to understand the motivations of others if you’re going to publicly characterize their actions or effectively oppose them.

▲rc5150 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Charlie Kirk, the trans activist? never heard of her.

▲laimewhisps a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No one knows why Charlie Kirk was killed. Plenty of theories but it doesn't have anything to do with anti-AI or even anti-CEO protests.

▲LtWorf 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think having health insurance denied isn't "being offended" but more akin to being killed.

▲croes a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> While talking with his father over the phone on September 11, Robinson allegedly told his father that he had killed Kirk because "there is too much evil and the guy [Kirk] spreads too much hate".

That is not being offended.

That isn’t so much different from Trump‘s reasoning when he decided to blow Venezuelan boats.

▲woodgala a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Dark corners?!?

The president of the US celebrated the killing of State senator Hortman.

The fish rots at the head.

▲addled a day ago | parent | next [-]

I think I missed this one (or lost in the flood of news). Got a link?

All I can find now is him pushing conspiracy theories about it.

Him actually celebrating would be the sort of thing that might convince some MAGA leaning folks I know to change their mind.

▲nickthegreek a day ago | parent | next [-]

Not the person you are replying to, but I wanted to dig into this. I do not see any evidence that he celebrated this. He did decide to try and blame it Waltz though..

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/04/trump-circulates-fa...

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1158335374671...

▲brightball 19 hours ago | parent [-]

The guy who killed her claimed Tim Waltz put him up to it. It wasn’t found to be credible.

▲ a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
▲woodgala a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲brightball 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Melissa Hortman died less than a week after voting against her party to support something on Trumps agenda.

▲Sabinus 18 hours ago | parent [-]

And? You're suggesting she was assassinated for voting for Trump supported legislation, by a Trump supporter?