"The risk is real," says the boss of the Signal Foundation, which owns the encrypted messaging app, but he adds, "it's not like those brilliant ghost stories told by starry-eyed teenagers."
The more immediate danger, in his view, is the careless use of technology.
He gives the example of a news report reported by CNN. The news alleges that a chatbot used by US intelligence produced fabricated information about a ship carrying Chinese nuclear materials, which led to a military response from the US.
"We almost went to war with China," he tells the BBC.
A system that produces faulty intelligence and nearly led us to war with China should not be considered superintelligent by any measure.
Signal has an estimated 40 to 70 million users. This number remains like a drop in the ocean compared to WhatsApp, which has billions of users.
The app is famous for its tough stance on protecting user privacy. The application hides the identity of the message sender from its servers, limiting the data that outside observers or hackers can access.
Project Maven protest
Time magazine named Whittaker one of the most powerful names in the field of artificial intelligence.
He is actively involved in environments where the future of artificial intelligence is discussed, from boardrooms in Silicon Valley to Downing Street, the British prime minister's residence, Davos and the Vatican.
He studied literature in college and joined Google as an entry-level temp in 2006 without a computer science degree.
He made a name for himself in late 2017 when a colleague told him about the Maven Project. For the project, a secret agreement was made between the US Department of Defense and Google to develop artificial intelligence-supported target detection systems in unmanned aerial vehicles.
He understood what "tightening the kill chain" was. Shortening the time between a machine marking a target and when someone decides to shoot, thus reducing the thought process. He opposed it, along with thousands of his colleagues.
“This will whitewash bad intelligence and bad data,” he recalls saying publicly.
The following year, Whittaker helped organize a walkout in which nearly 20,000 employees protested the company's stance on a variety of issues, particularly its hasty implementation of new technology. Google terminated the contract and Palantir took over.
Whittaker, who directly links the Maven system to the US missile attack on a school in Iran this year, says that the attack was based on this system and old intelligence information that identified the school as a military target.
“This is exactly what we warned about in 2017,” he says.
In response, Palantir told the BBC there was "no evidence that Palantir's software was at fault in this terrible tragedy."
The statement also said, "Palantir is not responsible for underlying data or identifying intelligence deficiencies."
Earlier this year, UK and Europe chief Louis Mosley told the BBC: "There is always a human involved in the process, so the final decision is always made by a human being."
The US military has yet to release the findings of its investigation into the Minab attack, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they would "never target civilian targets."
'I have a spine'
Governments, including the UK, argue that there should be greater access to conversations on messaging apps. They say the purpose of this is to protect women and children.
At the 2026 London Technology Week, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that technology companies are expected to detect and block nude images on children's devices, otherwise they will face legal regulations.
Whittaker described the government's approach as "an unprecedented regime of communication and information control", arguing that children could easily bypass such measures.
In its statement to the BBC, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology stated that they have prepared the relevant legislation.
So, would Signal abandon any country that forces it to weaken its encryption?
“Yes! "God, I have a backbone," he says.
It doesn't change depending on my mood. It does not change according to the consultants.
“If we had to leave the people who trust us, sometimes in life-or-death situations, at risk of surveillance that could be used as a weapon against them, we would go out of business,” he says.
The app is fully or partially blocked in Russia, China and Iran.
Rani Govender, Head of Online Child Safety at the National Association for the Prevention of Violence Against Children, told the BBC that they had received information about children being deceived into end-to-end encrypted platforms and being forced to create child sexual abuse material there.
Technology companies are responsible for the design choices they make and cannot ignore the risks these choices may pose to children.
Signal has support, especially from women's groups in the southern hemisphere that use the app.
“In an age of government surveillance and cyberattacks, Signal is a tool for survival,” says Hera Husain, founder of Chayn, a gender-based abuse charity operating across South Asia.
Every platform can also be used by malicious people, and we must accept this fact.
'What are we going to do about kitchens?'
Police officers shared racist and misogynistic messages in the Signal group, and these messages were only revealed when one of them revealed what happened to the media.
A police officer's lawyer said his clients believed Signal was as private and safe as their own home.
"If he was having a conversation like that in the kitchen and his brothers were snitching on it, they'd be like, 'What are we doing about the kitchens?' Would they think? he asks.
"It either works for everyone, or it works for no one. This is a principle of fundamental rights. This principle applies even to the immoral."
He cites the example of a US woman who was jailed after Meta revealed messages showing her daughter helping her daughter access an abortion in a state where abortion is criminalised.
In his view, private communication protects people from many types of harm.
“From an abusive spouse, a misogynist law enforcement officer with access to a database, or an authoritarian government that thinks women shouldn't be educated.”
So, what would she say to a woman who wants to enter the technology field but is intimidated by the sexist aspect of the profession?
"Do you like the job?" he asks.
"Do you feel a burst of energy when you sit in front of a terminal? Do you enjoy playing with and defining artificial intelligence systems?"
Then he pauses and says:
