POLITICO Tech Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on AI hype and the end of privacy
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Oct 23, 2025 
Join Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation and former Google employee turned tech critic, as she dives into the pressing issues of AI hype and privacy in our tech-driven world. She discusses how growing awareness of centralized tech's dangers is shaking its appeal. Whittaker warns about surveillance risks amplified by AI and the pitfalls of current business models. She underscores the need for transparency and ethical design in technology, arguing that the future of privacy depends on fundamental changes in how we approach AI and policymaking.
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Centralized Tech Creates Systemic Risk
- Big tech's dominance creates systemic vulnerability when a few companies control critical infrastructure and services.
- Outages and opaque updates reveal dependencies that threaten societal stability and autonomy.
AI Hype Masks Technical Realities
- AI hype often masks vague and magical thinking among policymakers and leaders about what AI actually is.
- That hype risks outsourcing critical decisions to systems whose costs and limits experts know are substantial.
Ask The Dumb Technical Questions
- Ask simple technical questions and refuse to accept marketing as truth when shaping AI policy.
- Demand explanations about control, data use, and vulnerabilities before adopting AI in critical domains.