Sir Sadiq Khan has used a rare power to veto a £50 million contract which had been negotiated between the Metropolitan Police and an American tech company called Palantir. A contract which the Met desperately needed to help them fight crime.
So why has the Mayor of London taken this unusual step? Palantir is a world-leader in using AI to speedily analyse vast quantities of data collected by its clients. In its contract with the NHS for example it has analysed patient data so effectively it has already reduced NHS waiting lists and created more than 100,000 extra appointments. And in its earlier work for the police it analysed pre-existing data held by the Met to root out allegedly fraudulent police officers.
