‘Hands Off Our NHS’: Anti-Palantir Protests Break Out in UK Over Deal With National Health Service
‘Hands Off Our NHS’: Anti-Palantir Protests Break Out in UK Over Deal With National Health Service
“别碰我们的国民医疗服务体系”：英国爆发抗议，反对与 Palantir 签署医疗数据协议
Protesters wearing hospital gowns and wielding signs gathered outside a UK health care conference on Thursday to object to a deal between the country’s National Health Service and American software company Palantir. 周四，身穿病号服、手持标语的抗议者聚集在英国一场医疗保健会议外，反对英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）与美国软件公司 Palantir 之间达成的协议。
At 8 am local time, the group, around 80 people in total, crowded the entryway to the NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester. They wanted to appeal to NHS leadership to terminate a contract worth up to $440 million over concerns around national security, data privacy, and the company’s political affiliations. The contract, which includes access to Palantir’s data analytics and artificial intelligence services, is intended to run until 2031 but includes a break clause that permits the government to withdraw the agreement next February. 当地时间上午 8 点，约 80 名抗议者聚集在曼彻斯特 NHS ConfedExpo 会议的入口处。他们呼吁 NHS 领导层终止一份价值高达 4.4 亿美元的合同，理由是对国家安全、数据隐私以及该公司政治倾向的担忧。该合同包含使用 Palantir 的数据分析和人工智能服务，原定有效期至 2031 年，但其中包含一项中断条款，允许政府在明年 2 月撤销该协议。
Huddling under a line of trees to shelter from the pelting rain, the protesters held up signs that read, “Patients vs. Palantir.” As conference attendees filtered past, some stopped to speak to the protesters, who chanted to the beat of a drum. “Hands off our NHS, hands off our health data,” they shouted. “Hey hey, ho ho, Palantir has got to go.” 抗议者们躲在树下避雨，举着写有“患者对抗 Palantir”字样的标语。当与会者经过时，一些人停下来与抗议者交谈，抗议者们则伴随着鼓点高呼口号：“别碰我们的 NHS，别碰我们的健康数据”，“嘿嘿，吼吼，Palantir 必须走。”
One protester, who gave his name as John and identified himself as an NHS nurse, tells WIRED he worries about sensitive health data falling into the hands of a foreign entity and objects to Palantir’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israeli military. “Palantir should be kicked out of the NHS, forthwith,” he says. “That’s the message we want to send to the government and NHS management.” (Some of the protesters waved Palestinian flags, signaling their objection to Palantir’s ties to Israel.) 一名自称是 NHS 护士的抗议者 John 对《连线》（WIRED）表示，他担心敏感的健康数据会落入外国实体手中，并反对 Palantir 与美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）以及以色列军方的合作。“Palantir 应该立即被踢出 NHS，”他说，“这就是我们想传达给政府和 NHS 管理层的信号。”（一些抗议者挥舞着巴勒斯坦国旗，以示对 Palantir 与以色列之间联系的反对。）
The protest was organized by Pull the Plug, an activist group concerned about the societal impact of runaway AI development. It was attended by organizations like Amnesty International and Unison, a trade union that represents health care workers. “It’s not all bad. But there are so many places where it’s being shoved down people’s throats,” says Frieda Lurken, cofounder of Pull the Plug, who led the group in the call-and-response chants. “We want ordinary people to get a say in how AI is used in our lives.” 此次抗议活动由“Pull the Plug”组织，这是一个关注人工智能失控发展对社会影响的活动团体。国际特赦组织（Amnesty International）和代表医护人员的工会 Unison 也参与了此次活动。“人工智能并非一无是处，但它在很多地方被强行推行，”Pull the Plug 的联合创始人 Frieda Lurken 说道，她带领团队进行了呼应式的口号喊话，“我们希望普通民众在人工智能如何影响我们的生活方面拥有发言权。”
The UK government first started working with Palantir in 2020, in the early throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it sought to track the virus. Since then, the company and its partners have won a slew of contracts with public-sector bodies in the UK, arguing that it can improve efficiency by unearthing patterns in disorderly data. Under its contract with the NHS, Palantir is tasked with aggregating and analyzing information collected across the health service under a “federated data platform,” with the aim of bringing down wait times and ferreting out waste. 英国政府于 2020 年新冠疫情初期首次开始与 Palantir 合作，旨在追踪病毒。自那时起，该公司及其合作伙伴赢得了英国公共部门的一系列合同，理由是可以通过挖掘杂乱数据中的模式来提高效率。根据与 NHS 的合同，Palantir 的任务是在“联邦数据平台”下汇总和分析整个医疗服务体系收集的信息，目标是缩短等待时间并消除浪费。
However, the relationship between the UK government and Palantir has come under scrutiny. Comments made in 2023 by Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel—who said the UK should “rip the whole [NHS] from the ground and start over”—led some to question the company’s suitability as a UK government contractor. A bullet-point manifesto published by Palantir, based on a recent book by CEO Alex Karp, prompted further concerns about political partisanship. 然而，英国政府与 Palantir 之间的关系受到了审查。Palantir 联合创始人彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）在 2023 年发表的言论——称英国应该“将整个 [NHS] 连根拔起并重新开始”——导致一些人质疑该公司作为英国政府承包商的适宜性。Palantir 基于首席执行官亚历克斯·卡普（Alex Karp）近期著作发布的一份要点宣言，引发了人们对政治党派偏见的进一步担忧。
Palantir has repeatedly denied that it is guided by any particular political ideology. “Palantir is not politically monolithic. We don’t represent party politics,” said Louis Mosley, the head of Palantir’s European business, in a recent interview. “We’re neither right-wing nor left-wing. We have the full spectrum of political views within the company.” Palantir 一再否认其受到任何特定政治意识形态的指导。“Palantir 在政治上并非铁板一块。我们不代表任何党派政治，”Palantir 欧洲业务负责人路易斯·莫斯利（Louis Mosley）在最近的一次采访中表示，“我们既不是右翼也不是左翼。公司内部拥有全方位的政治观点。”
Palantir did not respond to a request for comment. Palantir 未回应置评请求。
There are also questions over the efficacy of Palantir’s NHS data platform. Though the company claims to have cut wait times and helped to maximize the utilization of operating theaters, the division of the NHS responsible for Greater Manchester has declined to take up Palantir’s platform, claiming that its in-house software achieves significantly better results. 关于 Palantir 的 NHS 数据平台的有效性也存在疑问。尽管该公司声称已经缩短了等待时间并帮助最大限度地提高了手术室的利用率，但负责大曼彻斯特地区的 NHS 分支机构拒绝采用 Palantir 的平台，声称其内部软件能取得明显更好的效果。
“It’s exactly the use case that you don’t outsource, and you certainly don’t outsource outside the country,” Laura Gilbert, senior director of AI at the Tony Blair Institute, a think tank founded by the former prime minister, tells WIRED. “We should be learning from that data and building a better health service, not allowing an offshore company to learn and build better products they can sell to someone else.” “这正是你不应该外包的用例，更不用说外包到国外了，”由前首相托尼·布莱尔创立的智库——托尼·布莱尔研究所（Tony Blair Institute）的人工智能高级总监劳拉·吉尔伯特（Laura Gilbert）告诉《连线》，“我们应该从这些数据中学习并建立更好的医疗服务，而不是让一家海外公司学习并构建他们可以卖给其他人的更好产品。”
Ayub Bhayat, the director of data and analytics at the NHS, tells WIRED that the federated data platform is helping patients “while saving money for NHS teams and taxpayers.” “There is no requirement for its use,” he says. NHS 数据与分析总监阿尤布·巴亚特（Ayub Bhayat）告诉《连线》，联邦数据平台正在帮助患者，“同时为 NHS 团队和纳税人节省资金。”他说：“目前没有强制要求使用该平台。”
In early June, members of Parliament published a report warning that the UK’s growing dependence on Palantir represents “an unacceptable point of weakness.” The company is on track to become highly entangled in the public sector, the parliamentary committee argued, giving it immense leverage over the British state. The report also described a “clear mismatch with UK values.” 6 月初，英国议会议员发布了一份报告，警告称英国对 Palantir 日益增长的依赖代表了“一个不可接受的弱点”。议会委员会认为，该公司正处于与公共部门深度捆绑的轨道上，这使其对英国政府拥有巨大的影响力。报告还指出，这与“英国价值观存在明显的不匹配”。
After the report was published, the UK technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said that the government is conducting a review of “every single aspect” of the NHS contract with Palantir before deciding whether to carry the deal forward. 报告发布后，英国技术大臣莉兹·肯德尔（Liz Kendall）表示，政府正在对 NHS 与 Palantir 合同的“每一个方面”进行审查，然后再决定是否继续推进该协议。
Responding to the report in an op-ed published by The Telegraph, Mosley accused the MPs of “putting politics above patients” and fearmongering over the possibility that the company might abuse its access to sensitive health data. “Each NHS trust controls its own data; Palantir cannot use it, sell it, or move it,” he wrote. 在《每日电讯报》发表的一篇评论文章中，莫斯利回应了这份报告，指责议员们“将政治置于患者之上”，并就该公司可能滥用敏感健康数据访问权限的可能性散布恐惧。“每个 NHS 信托机构都控制着自己的数据；Palantir 无法使用、出售或转移这些数据，”他写道。
Whether or not the government decides to carry the NHS contract forward, Palantir has demonstrated a willingness to resist attempts to oust it from the UK public sector. According to The Times, the company is gearing up to sue the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan… 无论政府最终是否决定继续履行 NHS 合同，Palantir 都已表现出抵制将其逐出英国公共部门的意愿。据《泰晤士报》报道，该公司正准备起诉伦敦市长萨迪克·汗（Sadiq Khan）……