Palantir CEO Alex Karp says: What scares me the most about Europe is …
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has issued a stark warning about Europe’s lagging technology adoption during a conversation with BalckRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum. Karp praised the artificial intelligence simply for its ability to bolster civil liberties and transform healthcare, but he also expressed deep concerns over structural resistance of Europe in embracing digital innovation.
Europe’s tech crisis
Karp also made some pointed remarks at Europe’s political inertia. “The tech adoption in Europe is a serious and very, very structural problem,” he said. “What scares me the most is, I haven’t seen any political leader just stand up and say we have a serious and structural problem that we are going to fix.” He contrasted this with the U.S. and China, which he said have both found scalable models for AI deployment.
“We power tons of hospitals, but they’re struggling”
Karp highlighted Palantir’s role in supporting hospitals across the globe and noted that many face intake inefficiencies and staffing shortages. “They are working in a low-margin environment,” he said, “but every single one has a different way of processing patients.” He further added that AI can streamline these systems and allow hospitals to process cases “10 to 15 times faster,” ultimately saving lives.Contrary go the popular belief, Karp argued that AI improves transparency ad fairness. “It bolsters civil liberties,” he said, pointing to AI’s ability to reveal whether patients were processed based on economic status or background. “We can granularly show why someone came in, why they were taken, why they were rejected — and do it in a way that makes business sense.”
AI and global imbalance
When asked if AI would deepen global inequality, Karp acknowledged that America and China are accelerating far ahead. “They both work at scale,” he said. “And I think that is very likely to accelerate way beyond what most people believe is possible.” He warned that the long-term impact of AI is being underestimated, with discount rates on its societal transformation “way too high.”
Alex Karp believes AI will destroy these jobs
As reported by Business Insider, speaking during a panel at the World Economic Forum, Karp revealed that his own academic background which is a philosophy degree from Haverford College, a law degree from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in social theory from Germany, cautioned that such qualifications may no longer be viable. “AI will destroy humanities jobs,” Karp said. “You went to an elite school, and you studied philosophy — hopefully you have some other skill, because that skillset is going to be very hard to market.”Karp believes that workers with technical and vocational training will be in then highest demand. He quoted battery manufacturing as an exampple, nothing that technicians in such industries are “very valuable, if not irreplaceable.” “There will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training,” Karp told BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who moderated the discussion.
