No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

How Palantir’s AI Bet is Revolutionizing Defense and Beyond, with CTO Shyam Sankar

Jul 27, 2023

Shyam Sankar, the Chief Technical Officer of Palantir Technologies, shares insights from his journey as a key figure in the company’s technological evolution. He discusses Palantir's innovative approach to integrating AI in defense, illustrating the real-world applications of large language models. Sankar highlights the significance of private data and dynamic ontologies for effective AI decision-making. He also proposes a shift towards more intuitive AI interfaces, improving user experiences across various sectors while addressing the challenges of trust and data management.

39:45

Episode guests

Shyam Sankar

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Value of Using LLMs with Ontology

03:38

Gotham: A Data Integration Platform for Intelligence and Defense Customers

01:57

Palantur's FDE Mindset

01:10

Intro

2min

Navigating Early Challenges and Innovations in Technology

4min

Innovative Platforms for Data Management

5min

Enhancing Decision-Making through LLM-Powered Tools and Ontologies

3min

Building the Stochastic Genie: Tool Chains and AI in Defense

3min

Revolutionizing AI Interfaces

23min

Can frontiers as high-stakes as next-generation, AI-enabled defense depend on something as mundane as data integration? Can "large language models" work in such mission critical applications? In this episode of No Priors, hosts Sarah Guo and Elad Gil are joined by Shyam Sankar, the Chief Technical Officer of Palantir Technologies and inventor of their famous Forward Deployed Engineering force.

Early employee and longtime leader Shyam explains the evolution of technology at Palantir, from ontology and data integration to process visualization and now AI. He describes how a company of Palantir's scale has adopted foundation models and shares customer stories. They discuss the case for open source AI models fine-tuned on private, domain-specific data, and the challenges of anchoring AI models in reality.

Show Links:

Show Notes:

[0:00:00] - Palantir's CTO Discusses Company's Background

[0:10:17] - Apollo and AIP

[0:20:25] - Future of UI and Application Integration

[0:28:29] - Investment in Co-Pilot Models and Education

[0:31:22] - Exploring AI Implementation in Various Industries

[0:38:19] - Operational and Analytical Workflows in Context

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