Palantir CEO Alex Karp calls for penalties for AI companies over harmful systems
Palantir chief executive Alex Karp has called for enforceable industry standards and civil and criminal penalties for executives whose artificial intelligence systems cause harm.
Speaking to CNBC's “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday, Karp said accountability for companies and their senior executives should come before the creation of new government agencies to regulate AI. He also rejected deliberately slowing AI development as the industry's primary approach to addressing safety concerns.
“I support reasonable guidelines that are enforced,” Karp said, arguing that companies and executives should face consequences when their systems cause damage.
Karp also raised concerns about the potential nationalisation of frontier AI companies, although he did not advocate nationalisation as his preferred policy. He said the use of proprietary business data to train AI models could expose companies to legal risks.
“The view that I believe they have is, these businesses have to be nationalised because if you don't nationalise it every single one of my clients is going to sue,” Karp told CNBC.
His comments come as technology executives debate how quickly advanced AI systems should be developed and whether safety research needs to keep pace with progress.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for a measured pace in developing advanced AI models, citing risks including cyberattacks, bioterrorism and loss of control over powerful systems. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have backed the broader proposal, while Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has supported the principle.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has also welcomed pacing development and independent evaluations, while calling for international and academic participation. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have opposed slowing AI progress, arguing that development should continue alongside efforts to address safety and alignment risks.
US President Donald Trump has also rejected calls for a slowdown, saying, “Whoever wins AI wins,” as competition with China remains a key concern.