Proton CEO cancels AI re-interviews after employee backlash
Original title: Proton’s CEO Cancels AI ‘Re-Interviews’
Andy Yen said the interviews already pushed staff to discuss AI, while leadership still plans to judge AI use in reviews.
Proton CEO Andy Yen cancelled nearly company-wide AI “re-interviews” after a 404 Media report, according to employees and all-hands audio. Staff had been told they might be fired if leadership judged their AI use insufficient. Yen apologized for communication failures but said he will keep pushing AI, and CTO Bart Butler said there would be no job losses from AI. Employees told 404 Media the cancellation looked like damage control and that AI use would still factor into performance reviews.
Unconfirmed: Employee accounts to 404 Media disagree on whether canceling the interviews changes Proton’s AI direction.
- Six current employees and roughly two hours of all-hands audio informed the report.
- Yen wrote in August that staff should stop handcrafting code and use AI more.
- A reorganization next month will redistribute talent, with no AI-related job losses claimed.
- Butler’s Slack manifesto told engineers, “Your old job is gone.”
- Yen’s Reddit response was downvoted more than 1,200 times, the report says.
- Vendors
- Proton
- Organizations
- Proton Foundation
From the original article
4 min read at 404media.co
The move came after 404 Media published an investigation into how Proton CEO Andy Yen was aggressively pushing AI across Proton despite security concerns and the culture of fear he has created.
By Joseph Cox · 404media.co
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