AI agents can scour the internet for us, reply to our messages, and add events to our calendars. But in order to do so, they need sweeping access to our data. Handing that over presents an unprecedented threat to privacy, says Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker, who directs the Signal messaging app. In conversation with The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson, Whittaker discusses the risks of agentic AI, Signal’s approach to AI coding, and why it’s uncompromising in its commitment to protecting user data.
This episode was recorded prior to Keir Starmer’s resignation announcement.
(00:00) Introduction
(02:52) AI’s threat to privacy
(03:28) The end of the operating system as a safe boundary
(04:15) The dangers of off-device compute and the limits of Apple’s privacy promises
(05:30) Prompt injection vulnerabilities, and the risks of giving agents access to calendars, contacts, messages
(06:50) How Signal mitigates the risk of AI software like Microsoft Recall
(09:15) The accessibility trade-off: Why protecting privacy (at this moment) comes at the cost of screen readers for blind/low-vision users
(12:20) Are AI agents the new root users?
(15:28) The problem of proprietary OS providers
(17:40) Why don’t consumers care about privacy?
(19:35) Can a focus on enterprise customers fix AI’s privacy problems?
(23:30) How government surveillance can undermine private industry privacy efforts
(28:13) How Signal worked with Apple to fix the iOS notification exploit
(30:50) Meredith Whittaker’s critiques of the UK government’s content-scanning proposal
(36:20) The risks of compromising on privacy
(42:30) Would Signal take a different approach to privacy if it were the world's largest messenger app?
(45:36) What would you do with unlimited funding?
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