Meredith Whittaker, the President of Signal, emphasized the lack of consciousness in AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude, stating, “These are not your friends. They do not possess awareness.”
In a comprehensive discussion with Bloomberg where she addressed various topics including privacy and policy, Whittaker revealed that while she occasionally uses AI for minor tasks such as document formatting, she refrains from asking them questions. She expressed her commitment to her own thought processes, asserting that she prefers to engage deeply with her ideas rather than allowing a system to influence her conclusions based on existing information.
Responding to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s vision of users relying on Microsoft Copilot for managing their Christmas shopping, Whittaker raised concerns about privacy. She highlighted the implications of the tool potentially monitoring family conversations to understand preferences, which could lead to it gaining access to sensitive information like credit cards, browsing history, Signal messages, personal communications, home addresses, and calendars.
“What you’re outlining is a system that has extensive access across various applications and services,” Whittaker pointed out, adding that within Signal’s framework, such access would equate to a form of backdoor entry.
