Uncanny Valley | WIRED BIG INTV: Signal's Meredith Whittaker Says AI Is Just A Branding Term
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Sep 23, 2025 
Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation and a notable tech policy expert, shares her journey from Google to advocating for AI ethics. She reflects on crucial moments, like the Trump cabinet's controversial use of private chats. Whittaker critiques the branding frenzy surrounding AI, warning of its risks to privacy and encryption, especially for apps like Signal. She emphasizes the challenges women face in a hype-driven tech culture, while pushing for transparency and accountability in AI governance.
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From Monster Resume To Google Entry Role
- Meredith Whittaker got into Google via Monster.com after college and started in entry-level support.
- She described Google then as exuberant, permissive, and populated by nerds with time and money to experiment.
Data Is Editorial, Not Neutral
- Meredith noticed how methodological choices shape data and warned that social data is highly editorialized and contingent.
- She flagged early ML claims (e.g., genocide detection) as risky because training data and definitions are inconsistent and politicized.
AI Is A Branding Blanket
- Meredith argues 'AI' is a shifting marketing blanket rather than a precise technical term tied to one paradigm.
- She warns the 'bigger is better' compute/data race has physical and market limits and may force redefinitions or goalpost moves.