Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'

apsurd

damn, this guy crashing out live in front of his company and the (tech) world. AI times are weird. Validates that truism I heard: money (and power and influence and now AI) is an amplifier. It amplifies what you always were.

random_cat_8745

makes me sad, I use Proton, time to move away.

HelloUsername

Related: "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50289692 67 comments "Proton goes all in on using AI" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296602 110 comments "Proton to 'Re-Interview' Staff About AI to See Who Gets to Keep Their Job" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50251062 48 comments

jordand

I'm looking at alternative email provider options, and I'm struggling to find options that have banned GenAI, and have the features and reliability I need. I will gladly pay a premium for a provider that's not going to let AI creep in gradually, and take a bigger role over data and security

CqtGLRGcukpy

When this story goes behind their paywall you can read it (in full) at https://web.archive.org/web/20261030171028/https://www.404me... Keywords: bypass paywall

itissid

Proton engineering culture always got a bad rep pre-AI era as well(per their glassdoor reviews[1]) . Poor engineering directly or indirectly makes them susceptible to data breach because good talent stays away. One reason why I hesitated moved to proton back when a lot of people did. My understanding is that the only reason they are in the game are because send email services are extremely difficult to run. [1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/PROTON-Reviews-E13574.htm

woodpanel

It’s all fair and square for a Tech CEO to be thinking like that. Morally despicable but totally expected. It is an entirely different ballgame of idiocy to write something like > that’s looser thinking In response to one of his employees in a company wide slack chat. How stupid and unaware of yourself and your surroundings do you have to be? Put aside that this may even be a legal case in itself, what does this say about his leadership in general?

efitz

Damn. My proton plan just renewed a couple weeks ago. I have not failed to notice that they’ve slowed focus on security oriented features and are now focused on a lot of things I don’t care about, but I didn’t realize the magnitude of the cultural problem there. Without the security aspect, Proton is ridiculously overpriced. If they want to compete with GSuite or Zoho, they gotta come down. I’m willing to pay premium for a niche security focused offering. I’m not willing to pay a premium for AI generated crapware.

Y-bar

Aw schucks. I moved to Proton half a year ago in an effort to de-Google (and de-US) myself. Now this. Time to write a message to customer service explaining my concerns.

RandallBrown

If an employee is getting their work done, with or without AI, why does it matter? Is it just the idea that if an employee is keeping up, without using AI, how much work could they get done if they were?

wuhhh

Honestly losing the will over here; I Degoogled and moved to Proton a couple of years ago because they seemed to be a cool company aligned with my values. Is this coming from a “the business is failing and we need to ship faster to stay competitive” angle or is he just a massive ball bag? I mean either way he’s probably a massive ball bag but if he’s trying to save a sinking ship it’s at least somewhat understandable. Otoh if he’s just a massive greedy ball bag then I don’t even know where I go next.

_ink_

Looking at the comments I seem to be the minority, but I appreciated the honesty to say, look we want to use AI and if you don't then this company is not a good fit anymore. Now they will let go these people anyway, but in a less transparent way.

iAMkenough

Like I said earlier this week, this re-alignment of the people that built and maintained their products is also resulting in a re-alignment of their customer base. Hopefully we’ll see those talented engineers leaving to build an alternative to Proton products now that we know corporate leadership at Proton can’t be trusted. The board should really oust the “loser thinking” CEO and CTO if they want to minimize the damage to their brand. The company not providing even a written statement in response to 404 reporting speaks volumes. They don’t see themselves accountable to their customers.

simonw

I expect Proton's existing employees may be a particularly bad audience for a "let the AI worry about security" message from the top, given that they are more likely to be a) security experts and b) people who care enough about security to actively seek out a job at Proton.

louwrentius

Looking for a different mail provider I passed on Proton because of their support for cryptocurrency and because the CEO politics. I don’t care you are hosted in Zwitserland, your CEO makes me distrust the company dearly.

softwaredoug

Just makes me think how we have encouraged a generation of tech leaders to be complete assholes with no consequences. That “loser thinking” line should never be accepted in any company discourse, even from leadership. If this person wasn’t an exec, they’d be shown the door for that language. Have people completely lost their humanity? Is winning at whatever you’re doing that important we can’t be equally obligated to show each other decency?

matheusmoreira

> stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more Shocking...

jmuguy

All of this has made me really appreciate that the people I work for, and with, aren't childish assholes. People need to realize this is not normal behavior from an executive or anyone in any sort of management position.

frenchtoast8

This to me doesn't solve the actual problem. I don't care if engineers at Proton use AI, and I don't care if management makes it a requirement to work there. What I care about is using it as a way to instill fear. Combined with the CEO constantly blowing up on Slack insulting employees, it cultivates a culture of "yes-men" which is not good for a security and privacy minded product.

mostlysimilar

I already cancelled my subscription. They've demonstrated far too reckless behavior for me to trust something this critical to them, especially as they present themselves as the private and secure alternative.