Meredith Whittaker on AI
19 quotes from Meredith Whittaker on the wall, 2023 to 2026, newest first. Each one is verbatim and links to where it was said. Sources include TechCrunch, TNW | Apps, Fortune.
- 2026
It would constitute a kind of a backdoor
Whittaker argued that agentic AI systems requiring pervasive access to messages and apps are structurally incompatible with Signal's end-to-end encryption.
What it refers to
Signal's end-to-end encryption would be undermined if an agentic AI like Microsoft Copilot had pervasive access to messages, apps and data to perform tasks.
Other voices
- This sounds like a privacy nightmareMartin SheltonResearcher26 August 2026
- Trust is really important in the governance of AISusan Ariel AaronsonResearcher27 August 2026
Are not your friends, are not conscious beings
Signal president Meredith Whittaker, in a Bloomberg interview published in June 2026, warned against treating AI chatbots as trusted companions.
Other voices
- It doesn't understand the world because it doesn't inhabit itCarissa VélizThinker1 June 2026
- The quadrillions of hypothetical digital minds are notDavid MillsResearcher19 May 2026
A dangerous honeypot for hackers
Signal President Meredith Whittaker criticized Microsoft's Recall screen-capture feature for Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs.
What it refers to
Microsoft's Recall feature, which takes periodic screenshots of a Windows 11 PC to let users search their activity history.
We will remain free from artificial intelligence and will not be annoying
Signal President Meredith Whittaker, speaking at the FIBE-2026 conference in Berlin, explained why Signal will not integrate AI features into its messenger.
What it refers to
Signal's refusal to add AI chat features, unlike investor-funded apps that push such tools to boost revenue or data collection.
Other voices
- It's pretty much getting in the way and being shoved down my throatShelly Smith30 March 2026
- This is about greed and about money and about supremacySherida16 June 2026
- The only way to push back against the giant tsunami of AI hype we're all facing right nowAngèle Christin15 June 2026
- Nobody wants anything that is sloppy in terms of AI creationSatya NadellaBuilder24 February 2026
- 2025
That access is an attack vector and that really nullifies our reason for being
Signal president Meredith Whittaker on why AI agents accessing Signal data threatens the app's core purpose, interview with Fortune, November 2025.
What it refers to
AI agents needing access to Signal's encrypted contacts and messages to perform tasks on a user's behalf, which conflicts with Signal's privacy mission.
FortuneAI agents are an ‘existential threat’ to secure messaging, Signal’s president Whittaker says
No one wants AI in their messaging app, it's really annoying
Signal president Meredith Whittaker, speaking to Fortune at the Slush conference in Helsinki, November 2025, on AI features in messaging apps.
What it refers to
Rival apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are adding AI features that Signal has chosen not to include.
Other voices
- Nobody wants anything that is sloppy in terms of AI creationSatya NadellaBuilder24 February 2026
- Please, just stop sending me AI videos of DadZelda WilliamsMaker14 October 2025
- Please stop taking away our human connectionEmily Blunt7 October 2025
- There won't be operating systems, there won't be appsElon MuskBuilder31 October 2025
- With AI, where does the prospect for empathy come in? In a word, nowhereNaomi S. Baron29 January 2026
FortuneAI agents are an ‘existential threat’ to secure messaging, Signal’s president Whittaker says
- 2024
Nvidia's market cap is going to die for a second
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, predicting a market drawdown for Nvidia amid AI investment concerns, in Wired, 2024.
What it refers to
Predicting a temporary drop in Nvidia's stock value as a first sign that heavy AI spending is not matched by returns.
Other voices
- The WeWork of AIGary MarcusResearcher25 September 2024
- Companies are raising money faster than they're growingSomesh Dash30 May 2024
- Double the world's GDPSam AltmanBuilder28 June 2024
- Our company is thirty days from going out of businessJensen HuangBuilder30 June 2024
This generative AI moment is definitely a bubble
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, speaking to Wired in 2024 about the economics of the generative AI industry.
What it refers to
Argues the billions spent on AI training runs do not match the modest value of resulting products like simple chatbots.
Other voices
- The WeWork of AIGary MarcusResearcher25 September 2024
- Companies are raising money faster than they're growingSomesh Dash30 May 2024
- Our company is thirty days from going out of businessJensen HuangBuilder30 June 2024
- Mostly a tool for rich peopleSam AltmanBuilder29 September 2024
- That has been freeware, if you likeMustafa SuleymanBuilder28 June 2024
Those pledges serve mainly to highlight how far the walk is from the talk
Signal CEO Meredith Whittaker posted on X in May 2024, criticizing the AI industry's safety pledges in light of the OpenAI-Johansson voice dispute.
What it refers to
Voluntary AI safety pledges, viewed against OpenAI's handling of the Scarlett Johansson voice dispute.
Other voices
- A toxic culture of lyingHelen Toner and Tasha McCauley26 May 2024
- He's a con manAri Emanuel28 June 2024
- HerSam AltmanBuilder13 May 2024
- They planned the launch after-party prior to knowing if it was safe to launchOpenAI whistleblower30 July 2024
- Don't give power to people or structures that can't be held accountableWilliam Saunders23 August 2024
- 2023
This is giving them inordinate power over our lives and institutions
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, in a CNBC interview (November 2023) on AI development being concentrated among a few large tech companies.
What it refers to
AI development being concentrated among a handful of large tech companies with the resources to build large-scale models.
Other voices
- Generative AI is a fancy name for a more powerful usage of our dataFrank McCourt22 November 2023
- A small number of companies will control AIYann LeCunResearcher31 October 2023
- The goal of the companies is return to shareholders, not to return to humanityGary MarcusResearcher29 August 2023
- Industry cannot be left to lead the conversationSarah Myers West30 October 2023
NBC NewsA growing number of technologists think AI is giving Big Tech ‘inordinate’ power
When we pull back the curtain there's not that much that's intelligent
Meredith Whittaker, Signal president, discussing the human labor behind AI systems at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.
Other voices
- Judgments come with responsibilities, and responsibility lies with humansJoy Buolamwini12 August 2023
- Designed to trick you, to make you think you're talking to someone who's not actually thereColin Fraser25 July 2023
- An increasingly inescapable house of mirrorsDavid Bentley Hart3 September 2023
- Intelligence has nothing to do with a desire to dominateYann LeCunResearcher29 October 2023
TechCrunchSignal’s Meredith Whittaker: AI is fundamentally ‘a surveillance technology’
AI is a surveillance technology
Signal president Meredith Whittaker speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 about the business model behind AI.
Other voices
- Generative AI is a fancy name for a more powerful usage of our dataFrank McCourt22 November 2023
- Industry cannot be left to lead the conversationSarah Myers West30 October 2023
- The goal of the companies is return to shareholders, not to return to humanityGary MarcusResearcher29 August 2023
- A small number of companies will control AIYann LeCunResearcher31 October 2023
- The toys have changed, but the rules of the game have notRumman Chowdhury26 October 2023
TechCrunchSignal’s Meredith Whittaker: AI is fundamentally ‘a surveillance technology’
No stability, no long-term future, no benefits
Meredith Whittaker, on the podcast The Dig, describing how AI could turn unionized craft workers into gig-economy contractors.
Other voices
- Putting people out of work and making the rich richer and poor poorerGeoffrey HintonResearcher3 May 2023
- What happens to musicians now happens to everybody laterJaron LanierResearcher2 October 2023
- A median human that you could hire as a co-workerSam AltmanBuilder25 September 2023
Los Angeles Review of BooksThings Will Get Shittier: AI and the Dial of Business Basiness
The majority of the population is the subject of AI
Meredith Whittaker speaking on an AI ethics panel at a Bloomberg conference in San Francisco, June 2023, on who AI actually serves.
Other voices
- Private action is not enoughDario AmodeiBuilder26 July 2023
- No one person should be trusted hereSam AltmanBuilder22 June 2023
- Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become ruler of the worldVladimir PutinPolitician27 April 2023
- Have we learned nothing?Gary MarcusResearcher25 August 2023
TechCrunchGet a clue, says panel about buzzy AI tech: It’s being ‘deployed as surveillance’
These systems are also deployed as surveillance devices
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, speaking on an AI ethics panel at a Bloomberg conference in San Francisco, June 2023.
What it refers to
AI systems like chatbots collect data that companies use to monitor and make decisions about people.
Other voices
- Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become ruler of the worldVladimir PutinPolitician27 April 2023
- A grave threat to U.S. national securityDario AmodeiBuilder26 July 2023
- The human body is not a ticket-punchEdward Snowden27 April 2023
- We would never do that. right? right?Gary MarcusResearcher25 August 2023
TechCrunchGet a clue, says panel about buzzy AI tech: It’s being ‘deployed as surveillance’
Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, commenting on AI existential-risk discourse in a June 2023 MIT Technology Review article.
What it refers to
The spread of AI existential-risk fears among tech leaders and the public.
Other voices
- Preposterously ridiculousYann LeCunResearcher20 June 2023
- It's not just science fiction; it's not just fear-mongering – it is a real riskGeoffrey HintonResearcher28 June 2023
- Literally everyone on Earth will dieEliezer YudkowskyResearcher31 May 2023
- The whole history of AI has been a history of failed predictionsMelanie Mitchell28 June 2023
Whose house in the Hamptons will get another wing?
Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, questioning who benefits economically from AI-driven labor changes, CBS News, February 2023.
What it refers to
Economic benefits of AI-driven changes to work are concentrated among wealthy owners while workers' pay and job quality decline.
Other voices
- Putting people out of work and making the rich richer and poor poorerGeoffrey HintonResearcher3 May 2023
- Maximum profit companyElon MuskBuilder28 April 2023
- This market does not think about you at allZvi MowshowitzWriter17 January 2023
- They hold the keys to the kingdomNathan LambertWriter19 December 2022
CBS NewsIs AI coming for your job? Tech experts weigh in: "They don't replace human labor"
They don't replace human labor
Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, speaking to CBS News in February 2023 about AI's impact on labor.
What it refers to
AI systems that Whittaker says require new forms of human labor to manage, train and maintain them.
Other voices
CBS NewsIs AI coming for your job? Tech experts weigh in: "They don't replace human labor"
The concentrated power of the few companies that have access to troves of data
Meredith Whittaker, AI researcher, commenting on the concentration of power behind large AI companies, quoted in a 2023 Inside Higher Ed opinion piece by Anna Mills.
Other voices
- They hold the keys to the kingdomNathan LambertWriter19 December 2022
- This market does not think about you at allZvi MowshowitzWriter17 January 2023
- Every company will have AIDario AmodeiBuilder18 February 2023