When US tech giant Palantir signed a £330 million contract with the NHS to operate its data platform, some sounded the alarm over patient privacy.
The British Medical Association said it was “deeply worrying” that Peter Theil-backed Palantir, which also has contracts with CIA and UK Ministry of Defence, had won the bid, while MPs questioned whether individuals would be able to opt out from sharing their data.
But NHS England stressed that none of the companies in the winning consortium were able to access health data without its consent and that it would retain control of all data within the platform.
One thing is for certain: having access to vast amounts of medical data is enormously valuable, and the people involved in the project will be learning a lot.
In fact, one Palantir employee is already planning her own AI spinout. This week, the company’s Healthcare Lead, Rachel Finegold, registered a new entity with Companies House called Frontier AI Limited. Sounds exciting.
Spy attempted to contact Finegold but heard nothing back. There’s no suggestion, by the way, that any medical data is being misused in the creation of this new venture.
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