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Comment by dr_dshiv | Hacker News Reader

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dr_dshiv

Can you expand?

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It’s promoted as a complete system, but you end up paying them to build out the system to do whatever you wanted to do.

Right, AI is just custom software, with people in the back to deal with edge cases?

It's IF statements all the way down, baby.

IF (intelligence.getAnswer("What is the meaning of life?")) {...}

IBM, Oracle, Panatir....in a lot of cases these are pro services companies that custom build whatever is needed. LOTS of money in enterprise application development.

Oracle is a expensive and "popular" database, IBM does many things ( eg. Quantum computers, ... )

Palantir is a consultancy body shop with a dashboard product and a probably good pipeline for merging data. ( Reference - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11646587 )

Pure consultancy is rated much lower ( eg. Thoughtworks if you want a reference)

Consultancy + adaptable software is a decent business model. Unfortunately "adaptable software" for {insert industry} is a really hard target to architect right.

Especially when the majority of your tech headcount bills by the hour and gets paid to tell the customer "Yes."

I didn't say it isn't a decent business model.

In the context of pltr, I'm saying it's not similar as Oracle/ibm and comparison is futile.

Yeah, that is patently untrue.

How so?

That's how it is for just about any non-trivial business system. They're sold as complete systems, but there's still customization required for those systems to actually fit the business - and it's through offering consulting for those customizations that enterprise software vendors make the big bucks.

They are just a contracting company making money off billing the government hourly for their employees time. It’s a horrible business.

Sounds like an awesome business if you're getting the money.

A good deal if you can get it, but probably not the ideal outcome if you’re a citizen paying for it or dealing with systems engineered by them.

Not really assuming they are the prime contractor all the value is in the contracts and those are time limited before being re-competed lose all your contracts and your business value goes to zero because there is no IP like a Google or a Microsoft would have that is at the core of the value of the company.

Many people think palantir cracked AI.

While they are just using tensorflow and other things like anyone else.

Additionally, large tech can't apply for defense contracts because of internal ethical concerns of employees. So the naritive remains.

Who thinks that? I've never heard this. People thought Watson was a lot more capable than it actually was just because of the Jeopardy PR stunt. People outside tech were buzzing about IBM and Watson. In my experience, people outside tech barely know Palantir exists.

A lot of retailers buying their stocks and blindly following people like Cathy Woods and random YouTubers.

Not me, but i see some guys trying to spread that naritive.

"Just using tensorflow" is reductive. TF is a design tool, what matters is what you build with it.

Sure.

But having 'cracked AI' means you are the innovator. Not just using the tools ( eg. Compare that with Google & AlphaGo ).

We're not talking about the same things.

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