Whittaker: Careless AI Use Is the Real Threat — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, argues careless AI use is the real danger rather than existential 'ghost stories,' calling AI-doom warnings 'not anchored in science'
- Whittaker cited a CNN report that a US intelligence chatbot allegedly fabricated data about a Chinese nuclear-material vessel, nearly triggering a military response: 'we almost went to war with China'
- In 2017-2018, Google staff walked out in a ~20,000-strong protest Whittaker helped organize against the Pentagon's Project Maven drone-targeting contract; Google dropped the deal and Palantir took it
- Whittaker draws a direct line from Maven to this year's US missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran, which she says relied on the system and outdated intelligence; Palantir denies its software was at fault and the US investigation is pending
- Signal has 40-70 million users and is fully or partially blocked in Russia, China and Iran; then-PM Keir Starmer said at London Tech Week 2026 that UK tech firms must detect child abuse images on devices or face legislation
- Signal would exit any market — the UK included — that forced it to weaken encryption, Whittaker said: 'we would leave the market'
Why it matters: Whittaker draws a direct line from Google's 2017 Maven contract — which her 2018 walkout helped kill — to this year's US missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran. Her 40-70 million-user encrypted app, blocked in Russia, China and Iran, also pits her against the UK's pending child-safety scanning legislation and global encryption-backdoor demands.
Ask SkimNews
