Swiss privacy technology company Proton is accelerating its integration of AI into software development and requiring employees to fully adapt to the new work style. According to a 404 Media report on October 29th, Proton's Chief Technology Officer, Bart Butler, stated in an internal meeting that approximately 90% of the company's code in October was written by AI, heavily utilizing Anthropic's Claude. CEO Andy Yen previously referred to the suggestion of requiring several days of security penetration testing before code deployment as "loser's thinking" in internal discussions, and stated that this year will be the last year the company hires traditional software engineers; next year, it will shift to hiring people who can leverage AI to build products. The company also plans to re-interview employees to assess their AI proficiency, a process that could affect employee retention. The report cited eight current and one former employees, indicating concerns about the security of AI-generated code, the decline in human review capabilities, and pressure from management. A Proton spokesperson did not deny the specifics of the reported situation but acknowledged that the company's communication during the transformation process was insufficient.
