Tech boss says being evil is ‘actually good’ with bizarre car analogy

A tech boss has claimed being evil is ‘not bad’ in a bizarre interview and illustrated his theory with cars.

Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel caused a stir online after saying in a recent interview that evil is ‘actually kind of good’.

Speaking with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the media group Axel Springer, the billionaire venture capitalist was asked about whether AI is positive or negative for humans.

He said ‘I’m going to get in trouble for what I’m about to say, but I think we moralise way too much.’

Later in the interview, he said: ‘If you’re evil, you’re at least competent.

‘And if you’re evil, you’re not bad and therefore maybe you’re actually kind of good because you’re at least getting something done.’

The AI investor used two bizarre analogies to explain his ‘evil’ theory, comparing humans first to cars and secondly to the book of Faust, a doctor who sells his soul to the devil.

First, the Palantir boss said: ‘A Ferrari is an evil car because it doesn’t get many miles per gallon.

‘A trabby is a bad car; it’s less good than a golf car.’

Then came the literature lesson. Thiel continued: ‘Faust is a fake scientist; he’s sort of like a magician, a fake alchemist, and it’s bad science, and he goes straight to hell.

‘In Goethe’s Faust, he has a pact with the devil, and he gets his knowledge by morally dubious means, but it still always works out for the best and Goethe’s Faust gets redeemed.

‘It’s better to be good than evil, I want to be very clear, but you know I prefer Goethe’s Faust to Marlowe’s.’

Thiel went on to say the real problems are ‘99%’ of businesses, companies, people and political leaders who are ‘totally incompetent’ and therefore ‘not even evil’.

Döpfner then asked Thiel about an article he wrote in 2009 in which he claimed that he stopped believing freedom and democracy are compatible.

The Palantir co-founder explained that he issued a correction to the article two weeks after it was published and clarified it was directed at ‘libertarians’ who put too much faith in politics.

He said: ‘I don’t think democracy will go anywhere and what I was arguing for was a certain depoliticisation, a de-intensification of politics’.

Earlier in the year, Sadiq Khan blocked a £50,000,000 deal between the Met Police and Palantir due to the company’s links with ICE in the US and Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.

Palantir already has contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds with NHS England and the Ministry of defense, respectively.