Met police in talks to buy Palantir AI tech for use in criminal investigations

Exclusive: Internal concerns over allowing US firm linked to ICE and Israeli military to process highly sensitive data

The Metropolitan police has held talks with Palantir that could lead to the London force buying the US spy-tech company’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis for criminal investigations, the Guardian has learned.

Palantir, whose software is used by Donald Trump’s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, demonstrated its systems to senior officers in the intelligence division at the UK’s largest police force last month. Intelligence staff have been tasked with finding intelligence systems that AI could automate to increase productivity.