Meredith Whittaker

@meredithmeredith.bsky.social

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President of Signal, Chief Advisor to AI Now Institute

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Meredith Whittaker ·Feb 19

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped?

I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry.

Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto.

It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

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Meredith Whittaker ·Jun 16

Use Signal. We promise, no AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does. <3

Image of a screenshot of news headline, saying, "WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook
Forced Consent & Consent Bypass
/
16 June 2025
Meta announced today that it also wants to introduce ads on WhatsApp, which will be based on personal data from Facebook and Instagram. This further integrates WhatsApp into other Meta services - an originally independent app, which initially was available for just $1 per year without ads or data usage. This also means that Meta is consolidating its social networking monopoly. EU law was actually supposed to prevent this."

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Meredith Whittaker ·Jun 19

'Meredith,' some guys ask, 'why won't you shove AI into Signal?' Because we love privacy, and we love you, and this shit is predictable and unacceptable. Use Signal ❤️

Guardian headline saying, "‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number
Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user’s mobile to man asking for rail firm helpline"

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Meredith Whittaker ·0h

Kudos to Andreas 💐 Thousands of us at Google organized against the company’s Maven contract nearly 10 years ago, even though principles like this existed. We saw no hope that such principles would survive bottom line pressure—nor were they legally drafted to do so.

Meredith Whittaker ·Apr 14

Notifications for deleted shouldn't remain in any OS notification database, and we've asked Apple to address this. In the meantime, you can prevent any preview text from your Signal messages from appearing in your notifications. Signal Settings > Notifications > Show “No Name or Content”

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Meredith Whittaker ·Mar 5

Bonjour mes amis français ♥️ www.lepoint.fr/economie/sig...

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