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Proton Responds to AI Criticism and Promises More Transparency
After 404 Media's investigation, Proton breaks its silence: denials, apologies, and a promise to open up about its internal use of AI. Here's what you need to know.
Last Friday, I published an article on 404 Media's investigation into the pressure Andy Yen allegedly put on Proton to impose AI. The report described a CEO who called a request for a penetration test loser mentality, a CTO who said 90% of code was written by AI in October, and interviews planned from November 4 to 11 that could affect employees' job security. Proton's reputation took a hit after these revelations.
On Friday, October 30, late in the day, Proton finally responded publicly with a long post on its official X account. "We have heard your concerns about Proton's AI strategy and culture.", wrote the Swiss vendor at the start. Denials, commitments, then apologies: it covered everything.
Proton promises to show how it uses AI
Proton says it wants to "lift the hood" on its internal use of AI, with concrete actions planned:
- Open source internal tools: several internal tools will be released as open source, including more advanced versions of Lumo, Proton's AI assistant.
- Code review processes: Proton will publish how code reviews and security tests are carried out (but, isn't that for losers? The statement doesn't address that part).
- AI policy: Proton will detail where AI is allowed, where it isn't, and why.
"Instead of being able to only inspect the final open source code we produce to verify its security, you'll also be able to evaluate how that code was produced.", Proton promises. The Swiss company also says its use of AI will "never come at the expense of security", and claims it has added extra security review layers over the past year.
The message posted on X ends with an apology: "We know we have not met the high standards you are entitled to expect from us, and for that, we can only apologize. We are sorry.", Proton concludes. However, no timeline is provided, and nothing is said about the license for the future tools. More importantly, I wonder whether Proton would have shown this level of transparency overnight without 404 Media's revelations.
Denials that deserve some nuance
Proton says it will not re-interview its staff about their use of AI. That's true... since Friday. The internal email dated October 26 had clearly announced them, and according to 404 Media, Andy Yen himself canceled them on October 30 during an all-hands meeting lasting about two hours. "I want to personally acknowledge that there was a communication failure on my part", he reportedly said, before warning: "Going forward, I will keep pushing." CTO Bart Butler was more direct: "We screwed up, and we know it.", he reportedly said.
The same nuance applies to jobs: Proton says no position was cut because of these interviews. It's hard to claim otherwise, since they never actually took place. According to 404 Media, Andy Yen did however announce a reorganization next month, with a "redistribution of talent," but without any AI-related job losses.
As for the software that would measure how much code is generated by AI, Proton denies installing it on employees' laptops and points to a misunderstanding about how an MDM tool works. But the denial targets the tool being installed on endpoints, not the measurement itself. GitHub Copilot's admin console, for example, provides this kind of statistics without any local agent. In itself, if the CTO is able to cite a 90% figure for the proportion of code written with AI, it means there is clearly some measurement somewhere.
What do you think?
