Pentagon probe ties Palantir's Maven AI to Iran school strike that killed children
Bloomberg reporting cited by officials says the Maven Smart System flagged a Minab, Iran elementary school as a target using outdated intelligence, prompting online demands for Thiel's prosecution.
What to know
- Bloomberg's reporting, cited via a Bluesky post, says Pentagon investigators found Palantir's Maven AI significantly involved in a strike that hit a school in Minab, Iran on February 28.
- The reported investigation attributes the error to outdated intelligence still labeling the site an IRGC facility plus human over-reliance on Maven to catch such errors.
- The story is spreading almost entirely through social reaction (nearly 500 comments, 13,000+ likes on the originating post) rather than fresh reporting beyond the cited Bloomberg piece.
- Online reaction is dominated by calls for Peter Thiel's prosecution and broader alarm about AI systems being used in lethal targeting decisions.
The dispute Whether blame falls primarily on Palantir's AI system itself or on the human operators and intelligence process that trusted it. · positions read across 295 posts and comments
Peter Thiel and Palantir should face criminal prosecution or war crimes charges for the strike.
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“Peter Thiel should be tried at The Hague for wars crimes.”
teamx2024.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
This incident shows AI should not be trusted with or involved in military targeting decisions.
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“So the robots are killing humans & we are letting them”
yogiheathor.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The real failure was human over-reliance on the system and stale intelligence, not the AI acting alone.
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“Maven did not independently decide to bomb the school. Humans supplied the underlying intelligence & ultimately approved the strike.”
xtrahope1515.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Peter Thiel Palantir co-founderPalantir Technologies Defense contractor, maker of Maven Smart SystemU.S. Pentagon Subject of the internal investigationJ.D. Vance U.S. Vice President, mentioned in discussion
How it unfolded 5 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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5
Reaction wave continues, framing Thiel as accused of war crimes
Hours after the initial post, commentary continued characterizing Thiel as a war criminal and calling for consequences, with the thread accumulating hundreds of comments and thousands of reposts.
“Alright. So now Peter Thiel is a war criminal too. I like this because he belongs in a dungeon somewhere.”
— mercime.bsky.social -
Alright. So now Peter Thiel is a war criminal too. I like this because he belongs in a dungeon somewhere.
2 more of the top 3 · 109 posts in this stretch
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They will be investigated believe me after midterms, it will take decades, to unearth everything
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Excuses. There's no justification for bombing school children.
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Users link report to prior AI targeting scare with China
A commenter asked whether this was connected to an earlier reported incident in which an AI-generated intelligence error nearly provoked a US-China military confrontation over a false report of nuclear weapons components aboard a Chinese ship.
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And just a reminder: J.D. Vance is Thiel's Manchurian Candidate.
2 more of the top 3 · 161 posts in this stretch
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"Smart System." "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." — George Orwell, 1984
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Thiel is evil. And Palantir is everywhere. Wonder where all the data went that DOGE stole? Palantir has it. And NHS data in the UK. And lots more. Plus they're doing stuff like this. It's the most frightening development most people don't even know about.
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Commenters debate blame between AI system and human operators
Some users argued the failure lay in human over-reliance on Maven and stale intelligence rather than the AI acting independently, while others said AI should never be involved in target selection.
“Maven did not independently decide to bomb the school. Humans supplied the underlying intelligence & ultimately approved the strike.”
— xtrahope1515.bsky.social -
This is why he moved to Argentina and has bunkers.
2 more of the top 3 · 20 posts in this stretch
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Peter Thiel should be tried at The Hague for wars crimes.
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Stale intelligence + AI targeting + human overreliance = a school on the target list.🚨🤦 If this is what AI-enabled warfare looks like, maybe we should stop treating civilians as beta testers.🤬🇨🇦
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Bluesky users demand Thiel face prosecution or war crimes charges
Commenters called for Peter Thiel to be tried at The Hague, prosecuted criminally, and for Palantir executives to be held accountable, framing the strike as a consequence of AI-enabled targeting.
“Peter Thiel should be tried at The Hague for wars crimes.”
— teamx2024.bsky.social -
So the robots are killing humans & we are letting them
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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A
Bloomberg reports that officials directly involved in an internal Pentagon investigation found that Peter Thiel’s Palantir Maven Smart System played a significant role in the February 28 U.S. strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. https:// bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.s ocial/post/3mvxhff3sns26 - From resistance team of…
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Perhaps helps explain that whackadoodle interview on CNBC Friday ...
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Investigation finds stale intelligence and over-reliance on Maven
According to the reported investigation, the Pentagon used outdated intelligence still identifying the site as an IRGC facility, and personnel over-trusted Maven to flag stale or conflicting data; the system did not, and the school appeared as a recommended target.
“the Pentagon relied on outdated intelligence that still identified the site as an IRGC facility, while personnel placed too much trust in Maven to flag stale or conflicting information. It didn't.”
— altnps.bsky.social -
A
Bloomberg reports that officials directly involved in an internal Pentagon investigation found that Peter Thiel’s Palantir Maven Smart System played a significant role in the February 28 U.S. strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran.
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
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According to the investigation, the Pentagon relied on outdated intelligence that still identified the site as an IRGC facility, while personnel placed too much trust in Maven to flag stale or conflicting information. It didn’t. The school ultimately appeared as a recommended target.
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background
Bloomberg ties Palantir's Maven AI to the Iran school strike — Bloomberg reported that officials directly involved in an internal Pentagon investigation found that Palantir's Maven Smart System played a significant role in selecting the school as a strike target.
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background
U.S. strike hits Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran — A U.S. military strike hit the school in Minab, Iran, an incident later examined by an internal Pentagon investigation.
What people are saying 14 voices from 1 site · best of 295 · verbatim
- Is this related to the earlier reported AI-generated false intelligence incident involving a Chinese ship and nuclear weapons components?
- What specific role did Maven's targeting recommendation play versus human sign-off in the final strike decision?
- Sep 20
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S
Is there any way to gift us this Bloomberg article Time for this fascist nazi to get his due Thanks Sue
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Don't just treat this as a corporate crime. There should be criminal prosecutions.
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What’s insane is their end goal is the breakup of America, eradication of government,& then there will be districts RUN BY corporations with indentured servitude… These evil tech bros would have been laughed out of my early level political science classes. Yet we let them rule bc they have money!
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Yep! He was hand picked by him. So he won! Then the evil MF fled to Argentina. I hope the fine folks in Argentina know where he lives.
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It true it completely disgusting! Peter Thiel and Palentir should be ashamed and embarrassed and pay reparations to all the parents!!
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AI may not kill us all, but it certainly killed schoolgirls in Minab on February 28.
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Was this Palantir also: An AI-generated intelligence error nearly provoked a military confrontation between the United States and China after a false report claimed a Chinese ship was carrying nuclear weapons components?
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Every Tech CEO needs to charged with murder. Not only because of the AI, but also because of mysterious whistleblower deaths, like at Open AI.
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And underground anti nuke silos … Must cost billions to build that thing.
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Maven did not independently decide to bomb the school. Humans supplied the underlying intelligence & ultimately approved the strike.🤬🇨🇦
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AI is unable to differentiate between fact from fiction. There have been documented cases of “companions” pulling information from unreliable sources (such as Reddit) and relaying it as fact. It should not be choosing targets.
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Here's a link to the original Bloomberg story. It's not pretty, but Bloomberg doesn't do clickbait.
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He's a "Charlie Kirk Christian" rather than a Dolly Parton one.
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Peter Thiel believes he is impervious not only to justice but also the possibility his own AIs may one day consider him chaff.