Hundreds of nurses, administrators, and union organizers marched down Market and Sansome Streets Wednesday afternoon, demanding their hospitals immediately cut ties with Palantir, the controversial AI data analytics software company.
The protest was organized by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee labor union, which is holding their annual convention this week. Michelle Gutierrez Vo, CNA/NNOC president, estimated 1,500 protesters, just about everyone attending the convention, participated.
The march began around 2 p.m. at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, where the convention is taking place, and ended at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters at 630 Sansome St.
Jennifer Lloyd, a nurse at Adventist Health Primary Care in San Luis Obispo, was in town for the convention and joined the protest with several of her colleagues.
“There are so many errors” in hospitals that use Palantir software, Lloyd told Gazetteer SF. She said the software frequently botches bed placement, explaining, for example, it often erroneously places patients in infection rooms who do not need to be there.
“Then you get infection patients and we don’t have beds for them,” she said. “It seems like a small thing but it’s not.”
Lloyd and several other nurses who spoke with Gazetteer also noted their fear that Palantir will be able to collect sensitive patient data, including citizenship status, and share it with immigration enforcement agencies.
“It’s breaking confidentiality laws,” Lloyd said.
Natasha Kaur, a nurse who said she works in the Kaiser Permanente hospital system in California, was at the front of the police-escorted protest, holding a sign that read, “Palantir OUT!” She told Gazetteer that she and her colleagues also worry about AI meddling in hospital staffing, like pulling nurses off of shifts as a way to cut hospital costs.
“We just want Palantir out,” Kaur said, noting that most of the nurses she knows agree.
Lloyd, Kaur, and most of their fellow protestors wore red in solidarity with their union. Some protestors also carried red umbrellas emblazoned with black and white eyes, “symbolizing that nurses are keeping an eye on Palantir’s harmful activities," according to a press release about the event from National Nurses United. A truck with a sign “Palantir tracks, ICE attacks!” led the crowd through the streets of downtown.
Many nurses who spoke to Gazetteer said they were unsure if their hospital currently used Palantir software but feared it would be in most hospitals soon.
