US Intelligence Trades Scale for Smaller Defense AI Profiteer
Bloomberg's latest scoop details an AI startup, Palantir-backed Blackwatch International, snagging a seven-year Department of Defense data labeling contract from Scale AI. While the financial press fixates on who gets the next piece of the defense pie, they conveniently ignore the ever-expanding pie itself. This isn't about market dynamics; it's about the ever-deepening integration of AI into the
US war machine, ensuring an endless pipeline of surveillance and targeting tech, whether it's from Scale or Blackwatch. One might wonder if this 'competitive' reshuffling of military tech contracts serves any purpose beyond enriching a different set of venture capitalists. The Pentagon's AI budget balloons while fundamental social services crumble. How many 'smaller upstarts' does it take before
we question the trajectory of perpetual digital warfare, rather than merely who profits most?