Meredith Whittaker is skeptical of the apocalyptic predictions about artificial intelligence that dominate news headlines: she believes that fears that AI could turn against humanity “have no basis in science.”
“The risk is real,” says Whittaker, head of the Signal Foundation, developer of the encrypted messaging app of the same name, “but it’s nothing like the spectacular horror stories told by crazy-eyed fanatics.”
She believes the more pressing danger is the frivolous use of technology. And he cites as an example an incident reported by CNN: a chatbot used by American intelligence made up information about a Chinese ship allegedly transporting nuclear materials, which, according to available data, almost led to the preparation of a military response from the United States.
“We were on the brink of war with China,” she stressed in a conversation with BBC Global Women. “A system that produces false intelligence and nearly gets us into a war with China cannot be considered super-intelligent under any criteria.”
The Signal messenger has about 40-70 million users. This is a drop in the ocean compared to WhatsApp, which has billions of them.
However, this service is known for its uncompromising stance on protecting user privacy: it hides information about the sender of a message from its own servers, thereby limiting the amount of data available to third-party observers or hackers.
Protest against Google's contract with the US Department of Defense
Time magazine named Whittaker one of the most influential figures in the field of artificial intelligence. She goes where the future of this technology is being decided: from conference rooms in Silicon Valley to Downing Street, Davos and the Vatican.
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She studied literature at university and joined Google in 2006 as an entry-level temp without a computer science background.
She gained widespread fame in late 2017, when a colleague told her about Project Maven, a secret Google contract with the US Department of Defense to develop AI for guiding drones to targets.
She understood what “compressing the target cycle” meant: shortening the time between the moment the system detects and marks a target and the moment the decision is made to open fire. This minimizes thinking time. Together with thousands of colleagues, she opposed this project.
“This will legitimize bad intelligence and faulty data,” she recalls of her public statements at the time.
The following year, Whittaker helped organize a massive protest: about 20,000 employees stopped work to protest the company's management on a number of issues, including what they saw as a hasty introduction of new technology. As a result, Google abandoned the contract, and it was taken over by Palantir.
She sees a direct connection between the Maven project and this year's US missile attack on a school in Iran. According to her, it used the same system - and outdated intelligence, according to which the school was classified as a military facility.
“This is exactly what we warned about in 2017,” she says.
In response, Palantir told Global Women that “there is no evidence that Palantir software caused this terrible tragedy.”
The company also added that “Palantir is not responsible for the original data or for identifying errors in the intelligence.” Earlier this year, the company's head of UK and European operations, Louis Mosley, told the BBC: "There's always a human involved in the process, so it's the human who makes the final decision."
The US military has not yet released the results of the investigation into the Minab strike, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the attacks “never target civilian targets.”
"I have a core"
Governments around the world, including the UK, are pushing for greater access to instant messaging, arguing that it is necessary to protect women and children.
At the London Tech Week 2026 conference, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer said tech companies would be required to identify and block nudity on children's devices - or risk being banned.
As the BBC was told by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology, the department is preparing a corresponding bill.
According to Whittaker, children are able to circumvent prohibitions. She calls the government's approach "an unprecedented regime of control over communication and information."
Is Signal prepared to exit the market in any country - including the UK - if it is forced to weaken its encryption?
"Yes! My God, I have a backbone,” she says. “It doesn’t change depending on mood or advice from consultants.”
If there was a threat that people “who rely on us—sometimes in life-and-death situations—would be subject to surveillance that could be used against them,” the company would “pull out of the market,” she said.
Now the application is completely or partially blocked in Russia, China and Iran.
Rani Govender, director of children's online safety at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), told the BBC that the organization receives complaints from children who have been victims of abusers who first gain their trust, then transfer communications to end-to-end encrypted platforms, where they are forced to create material containing child sexual abuse.
“Technology companies are responsible for the technical decisions they make, and they cannot ignore the risks those decisions pose to children,” she said.
At the same time, Signal has the support of a number of women's organizations - often from countries in the Global South, where activists themselves use the application.
“In an era of state surveillance and cyber attacks, Signal is a survival tool,” says Hera Hussain, founder of Chayn, a charity that fights gender-based violence and is active in South Asia. However, she admits: “Any platform can also be used by attackers, and we must be aware of this.”
“What should we do with the kitchens?”
The BBC reminded Whittaker of a case from Canada: police officers exchanged racist and misogynistic messages in a group on the Signal messenger, and the correspondence became public only after one of the participants passed it on to the media.
A lawyer for one of the officers said the men considered Signal to be as safe and private as their own home.
However, Whittaker objects to this: what if the men were talking in the kitchen and their friend “tapped” on them? And he asks a rhetorical question: “Then they would say, ‘What should we do with the kitchens?’”
“Either it works for everyone, or it doesn’t work for anyone. This is the principle of fundamental rights. They even apply to complete scoundrels,” Whittaker is convinced.
She recalled a case in the United States when a woman was jailed after the Meta company handed over her correspondence to the authorities: the messages showed that she had helped her daughter get an abortion in a state where it is prohibited.
I'm asking if there is a lot of bullying in this area.
Her colleague intervenes, reminding her that it’s already two o’clock in the afternoon—the time we agreed to end the interview.
Meredith smiles.
“My advice is don't be a suck-up,” she says, using the slang word simp. - This won't help. Don't laugh at a joke if you don't think it's funny."
Material created with the participation of Katie Roberts.
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