Palantir and Anduril have teamed up to 'ensure the US government leads the world in artificial intelligence' and this is what happens when LOTR fans get to name companies

pcgamer.com:

I've never been that much of a Tolkien buff, but even I know a Lord of the Rings reference when I see one. Gundalf, Bilbao, and Legsolarse are much beloved characters for many of you (I'm told), so an exciting partnership between Palantir and Anduril should be right up your street.

Okay, perhaps not quite this pairing, but a team up between a top analytics outfit and an autonomous defence systems vendor has real-world implications that might be worth paying attention to regardless. Palantir Technologies specialises in software platforms for big data analytics, while Anduril is a US defence technology company with the stated mission of «transforming defence capabilities with advanced technology.»

Together they've announced a new consortium to «ensure that the US government leads the world in artificial intelligence» (via The Register). Exactly what that means is hidden among an impressive array of corpo-speak, but there's some language here that instinctively makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

«We will utilize Anduril’s Lattice software system and the Anduril Menace family of deployable compute and communications systems to instrument the tactical edge for the government’s secure, large-scale data retention and distribution.

»Lattice connects directly with third-party defense systems at the edge, delivers autonomy to machine operations, securely distributes their information across a large-scale data mesh, and backhauls all tactical data into government enclaves for the purposes of AI training and inferencing.

Menace devices are also purpose-built for the tactical edge, customized down to the silicon level for the unique requirements of national security operations in tactical environments—including, soon, next-generation encryption."

With the best will in the world, calling one of your systems «Menace», as a defence company, doesn't strike as particularly great optics. Anyway, the gist of the partnership is that there are supposedly two limiting