SignalGate — Encryption Can’t Fix Stupid… But AI Can
April 7, 2025
This week’s government news was dominated by Signalgate. All kinds of theories have been floated about how it occurred, who is responsible, and if the messages were really secret.
It’s easy to dump on Google these days. Despite an enormous data and resource advantage, they’re being handily beaten in the era of large language models by startups with much smaller teams. But LLMs are not even close to mainstream yet: most people who try them don’t come back and of course, they still can’t correctly count the number of Rs in “strawberry”.
However, when it comes to AI interacting with the physical world, Google is lightyears ahead of the competition. Waymo is already a much better experience than a human driver and no other self-driving offerings have proven safe enough to operate on roads in a busy, cramped city like San Francisco.
After dozens of ‘weird’ interactions with Uber and Lyft drivers, along with plenty of dangerous driving, using Waymo everyday is a significant positive change, from AI. Self driving vehicles will be a huge market and Google is way out in front.
