Signal president warns that AI chatbots are not your friends

In short: Signal President Meredith Whittaker says AI chatbots should not be treated like friends, and she warns that deeper AI assistants can create serious privacy risks.

What happened

Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, spoke about AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude in an interview highlighted by TechCrunch. She said, “These are not your friends,” and added that they are not conscious beings.

Whittaker made the comments as part of a broader Bloomberg interview about policy, privacy, and Signal. Signal is a messaging app known for privacy. Whittaker said she sometimes uses AI tools for small tasks, like formatting a document, but she does not use them to think through ideas or ask questions.

She also reacted to a prediction from Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. He suggested some people could let Microsoft Copilot handle tasks like Christmas shopping. Whittaker said that kind of assistant would need wide access, such as your credit card, browser, messages, address, and calendar.

Whittaker argued that giving one system that much access across many services is risky. She said that, for Signal, it would be like a “backdoor,” meaning an extra way into private information that users did not intend.

Why it matters

Many chatbots are designed to feel friendly and helpful, like a very talkative customer service agent. Whittaker’s warning is a reminder that these tools do not “care” about you, and they may encourage people to share sensitive details. The more an AI assistant is connected to your accounts, the bigger the fallout can be if something goes wrong, or if the system is used in ways you did not expect.

Source: TechCrunch AI