Proton CEO Andy Yen canceled a series of nearly company-wide AI re-interviews on Friday after 404 Media published an investigation into his push for AI at the privacy company, the outlet reported, citing six current employees and audio of an all-hands meeting¹.

404 Media said the interviews would have required employees to explain how they use AI, and described a clear intention that people could be fired if leadership judged that use insufficient¹.

The cancellation followed a Thursday investigation based on conversations with eight current and one former Proton employees, Slack messages, meeting audio, and an AI manifesto from CTO Bart Butler¹.

In that earlier reporting, 404 Media described Yen pushing AI despite security concerns, including an August Slack exchange in which he rejected a request to pentest newly written code before it went live¹.

At Friday's all-hands, Yen said there had been a communication failure on his part and that he would still push AI going forward, according to the audio 404 Media obtained¹.

He said leadership and the Proton Foundation board had discussed the re-interviews and decided to cancel them because they had already served their purpose by getting employees talking about AI¹.

Yen also mentioned organizational changes and redistributing talent next month, and said there would be no job losses from AI, 404 Media reported¹.

Butler said Yen had committed to communicating better and that using AI did not mean giving up on security or sound engineering, 404 Media reported¹.

Employee reactions were split: some saw progress, others said there was no consequence for Yen and that measures from the interviews would still appear in performance reviews¹.

Proton did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media¹.

Sources

1. 404media.coProton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'1:24 PM

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