“No flashy AI features.” Signal president explains why the messenger is ditching trends in favor of privacy
The platform's main and sole mission will remain to protect the fundamental human right to private and secure communication.
The platform's main and sole mission will remain to protect the fundamental human right to private and secure communication.
The Signal messenger will not integrate popular artificial intelligence tools and will not expand its functionality to suit market trends. This was stated by Signal President Meredith Whittaker during a speech at the FIBE-2026 technology conference in Berlin, Interfax-Ukraine reports .
Whittaker says Signal’s nonprofit status and its sole funding from donors are key advantages. Unlike commercial ecosystems where “the economic engine is fueled by surveillance,” the messenger has no investors or board of directors demanding constant revenue growth or monetization of user data.
“We might consider expanding, but we would never do anything that compromises our integrity… We’re not going to add a bunch of fancy AI features or expand beyond our capabilities. We have no plans to metastasize to the app level right now,” the platform’s president emphasized.
Whittaker noted that instead of implementing artificial intelligence into the messenger’s functionality, the team will focus on protecting against it. The development of offensive AI technologies creates new risks, in particular regarding automated scanning of systems for vulnerabilities. Therefore, the small development team, which operates with an annual budget of about $50 million, has to devote even more time to cybersecurity.
"We are well aware of our responsibility to care for the people who use us in many vital situations. So we will remain free from artificial intelligence and will not be annoying," she said.
Earlier, Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Signal, answered questions about artificial intelligence and the Confer AI assistant in a blitz interview for dev.ua.
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