Silicon Valley Is Spending Millions to Stop One of Its Own

Alex Borres, a former Palantir employee and current New York assemblyman, explains how data ontologies helped recover $20 billion from banks after the Great Recession by tracking flawed loans across securities. He details his resignation from Palantir over ethical objections to ICE contracts lacking guardrails during the Trump administration. Now running for Congress, he advocates for AI regulation and criticizes tools like Slack for disrupting focus, emphasizing policy over tech as the root solution to societal harms.

The episode offers a rare firsthand account of ethical conflict within a major defense-tech contractor and how technical insight translates into legislative action on AI and data governance.

1. 01Data ontologies can expose systemic financial misconduct by structuring and tracking data objects like individual loans across complex systems.
2. 02Ethical tech deployment requires contractual guardrails, especially in government contracts, to prevent misuse in areas like immigration enforcement.
3. 03Effective policymaking can stem from technical expertise, but upstream legislative action is more impactful than downstream technological fixes.