Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live.
asserted
who → have → it
“That’s bullshit and loser thinking.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August.
asserted
Yen → ’ → August
In a follow-up message, Yen reiterated his point: “only losers think like that.”
asserted
losers → reiterate → that
His ultimate message for the team was to “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”
asserted
message → stop → AI
That exchange was just one of many that showed how Yen and other company executives are aggressively pushing Proton towards AI.
asserted
Yen → show → AI
Proton is a Swiss company that famously makes the encrypted email service Proton Mail and a suite of privacy and security-focused products, including an encrypted drive service, an authenticator app, a password manager, and more.
asserted
that → make → service
In the last few months, Yen set up an email address for employees to contact if they come across anything blocking adoption of AI at Proton, so leadership can “ruthlessly smash everything that stands in the way of AI velocity;” Proton installed software on workers’ computers that track how much AI code the company is generating; and Yen said this is the last year that Proton will hire engineers at all, and instead only hire people to build things with AI.
asserted
Proton → set → AI
That AI push came to head this week when 404 Media reported Proton said it would re-interview staff about their use of AI, with the clear implication that those interviews, and employees’ willingness to embrace AI, could decide whether a worker is fired or not.
uncertain
worker → come → AI
404 Media spoke to eight current and one former Proton employees and reviewed Slack chats, meeting recordings, and an AI manifesto written by the company’s CTO.
asserted
Media → speak → CTO
Our reporting reveals a culture of fear inside Proton, where many employees are hesitant to even mildly critique Yen’s views or discuss engineering problems.
asserted
employees → reveal → problems
Workers describe an environment where employees have genuine concerns about security or being asked to develop security products with AI, but feel unable to voice them, lest Yen berates them in front of everyone or threatens their employment at the company.
asserted
Yen → describe → company
“The CEO is in full AI psychosis and has been for a while now,” one of the sources told 404 Media.
asserted
one → tell → Media
Our reporting also paints a picture of Proton that is likely very different to the public’s perception of a company with a goal of carefully protecting privacy: one that in reality is barreling ahead with AI as quickly as possible so it can achieve the explicit goal of more annual revenue.
asserted
it → paint → revenue
“Due to insufficient velocity,” Proton is not on track to achieve its annual recurring revenue target by the end of the year, one internal document obtained by 404 Media reads.
asserted
document → achieve → Media
Proton’s year-over-year growth is also “far away from what the market today considers to be good,” and, “By all metrics that matter, we’re an underperforming company.”
asserted
we → consider → metrics
In response to detailed questions from 404 Media, a Proton spokesperson did not dispute any of our reporting or characterization of what’s happening inside of the company.
asserted
what → dispute → company
“It’s clear that some people at Proton are unhappy with our direction, or misunderstand it, and many people are anxious,” they said.
asserted
they → ’ → it
“In our determination to move fast, we have sometimes been too blunt or too slow in explaining ourselves to our people.
asserted
we → move → people
We will work on that, as their questions are the ones we most need to answer.”
Yen, a former CERN particle physicist, projects a measured approach in public, but internally he acts more like what one employee described as a “petulant child.”
asserted
employee → work → child
In May, Proton announced it was implementing post-quantum cryptography which should protect against future attacks from quantum computers.
uncertain
which → announce → computers
The work took years of effort, with one caveat that it would not work on older emails, only those written after the feature’s launch, at least for the moment.
asserted
it → take → moment
Yen was not happy that Proton was drawing attention to this limitation.
asserted
Proton → draw → limitation
In a Slack channel dedicated to thanking people for their work, Yen jumped in.
asserted
Yen → dedicate → work
“Get it fixed,” he wrote, referring to Proton’s Reddit post announcing the feature.
asserted
he → get → feature
“Now Reddit is pissed and we look worse than Tuta,” he added, referring to a Proton competitor.
asserted
he → look → competitor
When employees explained to Yen the nuances of the encryption and why that was not immediately possible, Yen wrote, “I find this whole thing stupid.
asserted
thing → explain → encryption
You cannot announce this in this way.”
asserted
You → announce → way
“Now we are left with two shitty choices.
asserted
we → leave → choices
Deprioritize more important tasks for the business to re-encrypt old emails, or constantly get attacked online for not doing it.
asserted
business → deprioritize → it
So maybe you can enlighten me on which of the two shitty choices we will take,” he wrote.
asserted
he → enlighten → choices
Either you guys are confident enough to not fuck this up, or you get my advice to make sure it is not fucked up,” he added.
asserted
he → fuck → advice
He then told a member of the team that made it to “go on Reddit.”
asserted
that → tell → Reddit
“So go on there with your personal account and comment to set the record straight,” he wrote.
asserted
he → go → record
“Perception is more important than truth, the truth doesn’t matter if you don’t win on perception.”
asserted
you → matter → perception
One employee told 404 Media, “Whatever persona Andy [Yen] has out of Proton, he’s a straight up bully inside.
asserted
he → tell → Proton
He routinely breaks his little facade in Slack and calls people losers and stupid, often for stuff he’s paying them for.”
asserted
he → break → them
Ever since launching Proton Mail in 2014 after the Snowden revelations, Proton has steadily introduced new products that make Proton more of a worksuite than a simple email provider.
asserted
Proton → launch → provider
More recently, those products were focused around AI, with the launch of Lumo, a large language model (LLM) chatbot that the company says doesn’t log conversations or train on user data.
asserted
company → focus → data
In June, Proton launched a 2.0 version of its chatbot.
asserted
Proton → launch → chatbot
…and 115 more, not listed.
The Aporia
