Commit to remaining free of any and all AI tools
Proton, so far, has been a bastion of "the Internet we actually wanted". This is why it was so disheartening to see that the company is now seriously considering integrating GenAI into its suite of tools.
As the tide of big tech moves toward forcing AI tools into the face of every user, the existence of a platform that is explicitly not doing this is a breath of fresh air. There is no reason to "innovate for the sake of innovation". Let your competitors waste their time and energy being late to the party with the 80th, 90th, and 100th AI tools to come to market.
Beyond the user experience, there is a plethora of moral reasons to avoid this AI plague:
- The mass exploitation of human labour used to tag inputs for these models
- The environmental effects of generating power used to train them
- The obscene amount of fresh drinking water diverted toward cooling
- The degradation of information quality, as the human knowledge encoded in language is substituted with statistical approximations
Please, reconsider this. It's been refreshing to use a platform that wasn't mindlessly chasing big tech trends, and to lose that now would give me an extremely disappointing reason to go searching once again for alternatives.
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Jeff Schmidt commented
100% agree. If Proton decides to integrate deeply unethical "AI" technologies I will be forced, yet again, to migrate elsewhere. I'm hoping the responses to the last survey make this clear, but even ASKING about interest in the first place is troubling.
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commented
A majority of your users came to you to get away from their data being used to train machine algorithms. You will loose a majority of them by doing this. Would have assumed you already understood that based on your marketing material and how you criticize tech giants for those same sort of practices.
I’m not against the use of gen AI. It is indeed a useful tool, but like any other tool, it’s beholden to the ethics of how it is used. For gen AI the one holding the metaphorical hammer from an ethical perspective is the one developing the algorithm.
If proton were to create an AI tool that leveraged any user generated web content other than a place where people go to clearly volunteer their knowledge under a copyleft license such as maybe Wikipedia as an example. It would cross an ethical boundary already defined by the precedent of proton’s prior demonstrated values.
And that’s just one example ethics involved here…
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AdminProton (Admin, Proton) commented
Proton is not in the business of following trends, and we don't compromise on privacy, as our history and track record show. However, delivering the best user experience sometimes requires using new and innovative technologies, but always in a responsible way.
To give two examples, Proton uses in-house AI to answer some customer support inquiries faster, but always with human review to ensure accuracy. Proton Sentinel also uses some AI to better detect account takeovers and other threats, but again, it is supplemented by a team of human security analysts. AI is likely not inherently good or bad but is highly dependent on how it is used. Proton uses all sorts of technologies to further our mission, but always with deep respect for our values and the values of our users.
We always consider community feedback in everything we do, which is why we send out community surveys to collect additional information.
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Andrew Rose commented
Please, just don't!
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k commented
This is vital. Shame on Proton for even considering AI. Make it clear you won't go down that road, fast! People will leave over this.
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m commented
I would rather not have to move away from proton, it's been serving me rather well, but having AI anywhere near my primary email is completely unacceptable.
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brh commented
Was incredibly disappointing to see Proton even entertaining this nonsense in the latest user survey. You must have better things to work on then some needless management bait.
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Sara commented
I was really hoping Proton would be able to keep it's head cool and stay out of this most recent VC cash-grab. But apparently we can't just have nice things. Having to find another email provider would be a pain so please just don't.
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Kevin McKaig commented
"The Next Big Thing" is catnip for VC, but it's results are poor or outright fake. Please waste exactly zero hours of development on this nonsense and keep Proton excellent.
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Brian Vaughan commented
I am deeply concerned about the use and abuse of generative AI. A great deal, perhaps most, of the knowledge and culture we have amassed in recent decades exists primarily in digital form. And concentration in the information technology means that a few corporations control access to that data. Small groups of all kinds, including political activists, are dependent on corporations for storing their publications. Those same corporations are now spending enormous resources on LLMs and related technology, technology which by its nature cannot be made secure or reliable. The threat to confidentiality and integrity of data is immense, and we could face the destruction of knowledge and culture on an unprecedented scale. It is of the utmost importance that any organization that can push back against this do so, and that begins with a firm "NO" to the use of generative AI.
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Shahaan commented
I agree 100%.