Proton CEO Cancels AI Re-Interviews After Investigation

Proton CEO Andy Yen cancelled a series of nearly company-wide AI “re-interviews” on Friday after a 404 Media investigation into his push for AI across the company. The move came after employees were expected to explain how they use AI, with the clear possibility of losing their jobs if leadership judged their use insufficient. Six current Proton employees and audio of an around two hour all-hands meeting supported the account.

Why the re-interviews were cancelled

Yen said leadership had discussed the re-interviews and spoken with the Proton board in recent days. “They’re closely monitoring the situation,” he said. After those discussions, “We’ve decided to actually cancel the re-interviews,” he said, adding that they had “already served their purpose” because employees were now talking and learning about AI. Yen also mentioned “org changes,” including redistributing talent across teams, and said a reorganization would happen next month with no loss of jobs from AI.

Security concerns and the company culture

The Thursday investigation showed Yen pushing AI across Proton in some cases despite security concerns from employees. In one Slack exchange, an employee in the company’s security channel urged Proton to take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. Yen replied, “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” and “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.” He also wrote, “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.” The investigation, based on eight current and one former employee, Slack chats, meeting audio, and an AI manifesto by CTO Bart Butler, described a culture of fear in which employees with security concerns felt unable to voice them because Yen mocks or insults employees in front of everyone else.

Reactions from employees and users

One employee told 404 Media after the meeting, “I don’t think he will change anything, and I think the only reason we had this meeting is because he has a rebellion on his hands.” Near the start of the meeting, Yen acknowledged a communication failure and said he would reflect and improve over time, but added, “Going forward, I'm still going to push.” Butler said Yen “needs to, and he has committed to, doing better” regarding communication with employees, and said, “Using AI effectively and pragmatically does not mean that we’ve given up on security, or good architecture, or sound software engineering principles.” Butler also said, “We fucked up, we know we fucked up,” in response to an employee’s comments. His manifesto, posted to Slack, told engineers, “Your old job is gone,” and said not embracing AI posed an “existential threat to the success of the mission itself.” Employee reactions to the cancellations were split. One said some were happy because it was progress, while others believed nothing would change because there was no consequence for Yen. Another said the same direction had not changed and that the re-interview measures would become part of performance reviews. A third said they were mostly happy with how the issue was addressed, including by Yen. Many Proton users on social media said they were cancelling paid Proton plans, and users downvoted Yen’s Reddit response more than 1,200 times. Proton did not respond to a request for comment.

Sources: 404 Media