Signal chief says careless AI use poses a real threat

Meredith Whittaker, head of the Signal Foundation, says the main danger from artificial intelligence is its careless use, rather than fears that it will turn against humanity. In an interview with BBC Global Women, she called such fears “not anchored in science” and said the risk from AI is real.

Whittaker pointed to an alleged incident reported by CNN in which a chatbot used by US intelligence invented information about a Chinese vessel carrying nuclear material. The report said the error led the US to prepare a military response. “We almost went to war with China,” she told the BBC. CNN’s account and Whittaker’s description are not independently confirmed in the source material.

Whittaker previously opposed Google’s Project Maven, a US Department of Defense contract to develop AI for drone targeting. She said she warned the system could “launder bad intelligence and bad data.” In 2018, she helped organise a staff walkout involving about 20,000 employees. Google later dropped the contract, which Palantir took over.

Whittaker also connects Project Maven to a US missile strike on a school in Iran this year, saying it relied on the system and outdated intelligence. Palantir said there was “no evidence” its software was at fault and that it was not responsible for the underlying data. The US military has not released its investigation findings, according to the BBC.

Whittaker says Signal would leave any market that forced it to weaken encryption. The app is fully or partly blocked in Russia, China and Iran.