Proton CEO Andy Yen rebuked an employee who wanted at least a few days to pentest newly written code before release, Joseph Cox reported for 404 Media on Oct. 29. Cox dates the exchange in Proton’s security Slack channel to the end of August. Yen wrote, “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure.” In a follow-up message, he told the team to “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”
The exchange came amid a broader push to use AI at Proton, which makes encrypted email and other privacy and security products. Cox reports that Yen set up an email address for staff to flag obstacles to AI adoption. Proton also installed software to track how much AI code workers generate, according to the report.
404 Media says it spoke with eight current and one former employee and reviewed Slack chats, meeting recordings and an AI manifesto written by Proton’s CTO. Workers described concerns about security and developing security products with AI, but felt unable to voice them for fear of public rebukes or threats to their jobs, the outlet reports.
A Proton spokesperson told 404 Media, “It’s clear that some people at Proton are unhappy with our direction, or misunderstand it, and many people are anxious.” The spokesperson said the company had sometimes been too blunt or too slow in explaining itself to staff and promised to work on that.
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