Peter Thiel criticizes Google and Apple for being too close to China

CNBC ^ | Kif Leswing

[RoosterRedux]

Tech investor Peter Thiel criticized big U.S. technology companies for being too close to China at a Tuesday appearance at a virtual event held by the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and sits on Facebook’s board after making an early investment, is an outspoken voice in the technology investment world is known for contrarian opinions and conservative leanings. He’s backed defense contractors like Palantir and publicly supported former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president.

On Wednesday, the Nixon session focused on China, and he was joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.

Thiel criticized Google for its work on artificial intelligence with Chinese universities, partially because of conversations he claimed to have with company insiders, according to a transcript of the event reviewed by CNBC.

“Since everything in China is a civilian-military fusion, Google was effectively working with the Chinese military, not with the American military,” Thiel said. He also sad that Google “insiders” told him that they worked with the Chinese because “they figured they might as well give the technology out the front door, because if they didn’t give it – it would get stolen anyway.”

*snip*

Thiel had previously criticized Google in 2019, saying that the FBI and CIA should investigate Google and ask whether it had been compromised by Chinese spies.

Thiel also said that Apple was unlikely to confront China because of its massive supply chain to manufacture iPhones and other products in the country. He noted that other big technology companies like Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft don’t have as extensive business interests in the country, in some cases because the Chinese government has restricted what they can do there.

[MtnClimber]

Google helping the China CCP surveillance state with facial recognition software that was used to ID Uigers and imprison them. Some were killed for organ harvesting. Nice job Google. What do you have planned for the USA?

[AustinBill]

Thiel knows better than most just how abusive and antithetical to liberty “big data” can be when not used ethically or with proper safeguards. That’s why Palantir has been architected from the ground up not to share anything with some unaccountable “mother ship”. Today’s technology in the wrong hands can make (and sadly is making) Orwell’s 1984 look like a warm-up act.

Apple is at least making an attempt to respect individual privacy, but they have (knowingly or unknowingly) shared a tremendous amount of technology with the world’s leading totalitarian state. Google is already beyond the pale and along with FaceBook is deeply involved in turning the world into a giant police state.