Meredith Whittaker dismisses the artificial intelligence apocalypse narratives that dominate media coverage, arguing that the genuine threat lies not in machines rebelling against humanity but in the reckless deployment of AI systems by organisations and governments. She characterises warnings of superintelligent AI turning hostile as fears "not anchored in science", while the more pressing danger stems from technology being used without adequate safeguards or oversight.
As head of the Signal Foundation, which operates the encrypted messaging platform of the same name, Whittaker has positioned herself at the centre of debates about technology's role in society. She points to a concrete example of the risks she identifies: an incident reported by CNN in which a chatbot deployed by US intelligence agencies generated false information about a Chinese vessel allegedly transporting nuclear material. The fabricated intelligence nearly triggered a military escalation.
"We almost went to war with China,"she tells the BBC World Service's Global Women programme.
"A system that produces faulty intelligence and almost gets us into a war with China should not be considered super-intelligent by any standards."
Signal operates with an estimated 40 to 70 million users worldwide, a fraction of the scale achieved by competitors such as WhatsApp. The platform has built its reputation on an uncompromising approach to user privacy: it prevents even Signal's own servers from accessing information about who is communicating with whom, thereby minimising the data available to external parties or potential attackers.
How did Whittaker become a prominent voice in AI ethics?
Time magazine recognised Whittaker as one of the most influential figures shaping artificial intelligence's trajectory. She navigates the corridors where technology's future is determined, from venture capital offices in Silicon Valley to political centres including Downing Street, the World Economic Forum at Davos, and the Vatican.
Her path into technology was unconventional. She studied literature at university and joined Google in 2006 as a junior temporary employee without formal training in computer science. Her prominence in the field emerged in late 2017 when a colleague disclosed details of Project Maven, a classified partnership between Google and the US Department of Defense designed to develop artificial intelligence systems for drone targeting systems.
Whittaker grasped the implications immediately: the technology would compress what she calls the "kill chain", reducing the interval between a machine identifying a target and a human authorising a strike, thereby minimising the time available for deliberation and review. She mobilised opposition alongside thousands of colleagues.
"This is going to launder bad intelligence and bad data,"she recalls stating publicly at the time.
The following year, Whittaker coordinated a major staff protest in which approximately 20,000 Google employees demonstrated against the company's approach to multiple concerns, including what they viewed as the hasty rollout of untested technology. Google subsequently terminated the Maven contract, which was then assumed by Palantir Technologies.
Whittaker traces a direct connection from Project Maven to a US military airstrike on a school in Iran during 2024, which she contends relied on the Maven-derived system and on intelligence data that was outdated and incorrectly identified the school as a military installation.
"This is exactly what we were warning about in 2017,"she says.
Palantir responded to Global Women with a statement asserting there was
"no evidence that Palantir's software was at fault in this terrible tragedy"and that
"Palantir is not responsible for the underlying data nor identifying intelligence deficiencies"."Louis Mosley, Palantir's UK and Europe chief, told the BBC earlier this year that
"there's always a human in the loop, so there is always a human that makes the ultimate decision"."The US military has not yet published its investigation findings into the Minab strike, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the military would
"never target civilian targets"."
What is the debate over encryption and child safety?
Multiple governments, including the United Kingdom, have pressed for expanded access to private conversations on messaging platforms, framing such measures as necessary to safeguard women and children from exploitation. At London Tech Week in 2026, then Prime Minister Keir Starmer indicated that technology firms would face legal requirements to identify and prevent the distribution of child sexual abuse material on users' devices, with legislation threatened as a consequence of non-compliance.
Whittaker rejects this framing, contending that young people would readily circumvent any such detection systems and characterising the government's strategy as
"an unprecedented regime of communication and information controls"."The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology confirmed to the BBC that it is developing legislation to address these concerns.
When asked whether Signal would withdraw from any jurisdiction, including the UK, that mandated weakening its encryption protocols, Whittaker's response is unequivocal:
"Yes! My God, I have a backbone. It doesn't change based on mood. It doesn't change based on consultants."She explains that exposing users
"who rely on us, sometimes in the context of life or death, to surveillance that could be weaponised against them"would be unconscionable. The platform is currently fully or partially restricted in Russia, China, and Iran.
Rani Govender, Head of Child Safety Online at the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, told the BBC that the organisation receives reports from children who have been groomed and subsequently moved to end-to-end encrypted platforms, where they face coercion to produce child sexual abuse material.
"Tech companies are responsible for the design choices they make, and they cannot ignore the risks those choices can create for children."
However, Signal does receive backing from certain women's rights organisations, particularly those based in the Global South whose members rely on the platform. Hera Hussain, founder of Chayn, a gender abuse charity operating throughout South Asia, told the BBC:
"In a time of state surveillance and cyber-attacks, Signal is a tool for survival. With any platform, it can be used by bad actors too, and we have to hold that truth too."
How does Whittaker address concerns about misuse of encrypted platforms?
When presented with a case from Canada involving police officers who shared racist and misogynistic messages in a Signal group chat—communications that became public only when one officer leaked them to journalists—Whittaker reframes the issue. A lawyer representing one of the officers claimed the men believed Signal provided the same privacy protections as a conversation in their own homes.
Whittaker responds with a rhetorical question:
"If they had that conversation in the kitchen and their bro snitched, would it be: 'What are we doing about kitchens?'"She emphasises that encryption
"has to work for everyone or it works for no-one. This is the principle of fundamental rights. They apply even to assholes."
She references a case involving a US woman prosecuted after Meta provided law enforcement with private messages demonstrating she had assisted her daughter in obtaining an abortion in a state where the procedure had been criminalised. Whittaker argues that private communication serves as protection against multiple forms of harm:
"an abusive spouse, a misogynist law enforcement officer with access to a database, or an authoritarian government that doesn't think women should get educated"."
What is Whittaker's perspective on AI's actual capabilities and risks?
Beyond the encryption debate, Whittaker maintains a sceptical stance toward artificial intelligence itself. According to reporting from The Next Web, she uses AI tools only for limited tasks such as document formatting and does not pose questions to AI systems. She has also warned that AI agents' requirements for access to messages, calendars, payment information and other personal data represent a significant surveillance risk.
In a June 2026 interview, Whittaker reiterated that AI assistants and child safety initiatives could undermine encrypted communication, reinforcing her position that Signal would abandon markets rather than compromise its fundamental principles.
Whittaker's work extends beyond Signal's leadership. She co-founded the AI Now Institute, an organisation whose research examines the societal consequences of artificial intelligence and investigates the power structures and political economy underlying its commercialisation.
What advice does Whittaker offer to women entering technology?
When asked what guidance she would offer to women considering careers in technology but feeling intimidated by the male-dominated culture of the sector, Whittaker poses a series of questions:
"Do you sit down at a terminal and feel a rush of energy? Do you enjoy playing with and defining AI systems?"
She then adds a more pointed consideration:
"Are you able to navigate interesting and gnarly environments where not everyone is going to be chill? Because there's nothing more dangerous than being a coward in front of a bully."When pressed on whether such environments are indeed populated by bullies, Whittaker's colleague signals the end of the scheduled interview time.
Whittaker concludes with direct counsel:
"I'd say don't be a simp,"using a term for someone who displays excessive deference to authority.
"It's not going to help you. Don't laugh at the joke if you don't think it's funny."
What are Whittaker's upcoming commitments?
Whittaker is scheduled to speak at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons' annual meeting on 3 November 2026, and will also appear as a speaker at Imagination in Action, an event being held at MIT's Samberg Conference Center on 30 October 2026.
This article is part of the Global Women series from the BBC World Service, which shares untold and significant stories from across the world. Additional reporting by Katie Roberts.
