“Full of discrimination”: Signal boss Whittaker calculates with AI

“Full of Discrimination”
Signal boss Whittaker calculates with AI

6/4/2023 8:02 p.m

In the popular messenger service Signal, AI will not play a role, its boss makes it unmistakably clear. Meredith Whittaker is disgusted with the current developments in the tech industry. She demands: AI should not only be entrusted to a “handful of private companies”.

At the start of the Re:publica digital conference, Meredith Whittaker, head of the Messenger app Signal, sharply criticized current developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). She accused the leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Microsoft of not doing enough against discrimination by artificial intelligence.

The companies’ training data is “predominantly English and full of misogyny, racism and other discrimination,” Whittaker said in an interview with “Spiegel”. “As a result, the negative consequences of AI hit those who are often excluded in society the hardest.” Central technologies such as AI should “not only be entrusted to a handful of private companies”.

In the conversation, Whittaker also opposed an open letter in which leading AI entrepreneurs and experts warned last week that AI development would end humanity. “The authors warn of risks in the distant future, although artificial intelligence already has negative societal and social consequences today.”

Messenger service could withdraw from Europe

The Messenger Signal, whose development Whittaker is co-responsible for as President of the non-profit Signal Foundation, will not go into AI development, but will concentrate on its core functionality. “I’ve seen some hype in the tech industry and I’d say we’re just sitting it out,” says Whittaker, who previously worked at Google for a long time and is holding the opening keynote at this year’s Re:publica digital conference.

Whittaker also threatened that Signal could pull out of Europe amid EU plans to screen chats in the fight against child abuse. “If in the end we are faced with the choice of weakening our encryption or leaving the EU, then we’ll go.” In addition, technical measures such as proxy servers will help maintain access to Signal – “regardless of what the law says,” said Whittaker.