At the recently concluded SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, Signal President Meredith Whittaker took the stage, and wow, did she bring the heat regarding agentic AI, that shiny new tech buzzword that promises to take over our mundane tasks with minimal effort. So, are we supposed to just hand over the keys to our lives? Whittaker says, umm, not so fast.

Describing these AI agents as akin to “putting your brain in a jar,” she warned that while they may seem like the solution to our busy lives, handling everything from Booking concerts to scheduling brunch with friends, they come with some deeply unsettling consequences for our privacy and security.

Just think about it: these little digital sherpas need to access everything. Your web browser, your credit card info, maybe even the embarrassing texts you swore you’d delete. It’s a one-stop shop for colossal data access, and Whittaker points out that this essentially opens the floodgates of your personal information to potentially sketchy cloud servers. Sounds like a great plan, right?

Whittaker’s warning was clear: integrating agentic AI into apps like Signal could significantly erode user privacy. These agents won’t just send your messages; they’ll need to dig into your entire app ecosystem to pull data back and forth. That’s right, your AI buddy might just leak your private chats because it has access to everything.

Adding fuel to the fire, she bluntly criticized the AI industry’s obsessive obsession with mass data collection, dubbing it the “bigger is better” mentality. I mean, sure, who doesn’t want a smart assistant that also doubles as a privacy-violating gossip? Nothing says reliability like letting a bot wade through your personal life.

At this rate, all under the guise of a magic genie bot, we might as well just give up on privacy altogether. Whittaker concluded, emphasizing the dangerous crossroad we’re standing at, where convenience tosses privacy right out the window in the glittery name of progress.

So next time your phone offers to plan your life for you, just remember what Whittaker said: if you think it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t be surprised when your new AI overlord knows you better than your therapist.

In the rush for innovation, let’s not lose our privacy in the process.