“You’re right to raise this…”
“… and that’s on us.”
Has the same kind of simpering tone you’d get out of an LLM.
Or any PR firm, which is why they talk like that in the first place.
This does make me wonder if the AI simpers differently in different languages.
Are you familiar with the works of Shao Yu?
Meanwhile im positively surprised that there is no “sorry you are offended”-BS at all in this statement.
Just curious, what could they have possibly done instead that would satisfy you?
… not used an LLM to write their apology?
I mean, I’m satisfied. This indicates to me they don’t care. That’s all I need to hear.
There is no proof they used an LLM. Plus, LLMs are trained on human text anyway, who actually talk like this… it’s not like LLMs invented their own way of speaking.
Would you have preferred no apology at all?
My preference is for companies to not use LLMs for public communication.
And, the scholarly applause of us anons, of course. ☝🏼
If you see something like this again, tell us. We rely on your feedback and vigilance.
Or … you could ensure something like this doesn’t happen again yourselves. It’s not our job to police your social media purchases.
Plus, it seems like you were notified and got feedback - just that it happened way more publicly than you wanted. Which again, isn’t our problem to deal with.
Not worded the best, but they did say they were going to rework how they evaluated where they are marketing. I read that as a last resort when they make a mistake they’re willing to listen.
My first reaction was it looks AI generated, but TBH I’ve seen plenty of corporate CYA pieces like this before GAI existed, so it could just be that’s where AI got it from…
LLMs are soulless.
Marketing and PR people are soulless.
It’s not coincidence they sound alike.
When LLMs started to sound like middle managers we made the mistake of assuming it was conscious instead of assuming that middle managers weren’t
It’s 100% LLM slop.
This reads like chatgpt.
No way in hell this wasn’t shat out by an LLM.
There’s a LOT of corporate CYA bullshit to train from.
I believe them when they say this was an error of vetting because they’d have to be naive to think this wouldn’t be discovered and that a lot of their customers would have an issue with it. But that in itself is troubling. Proton are not some small-fry company with staff numbers in the single digits. Something like this speaks to their lack of planning, organisation and error-checking which are very bad traits for a privacy-centered set of software developers to have.
I’ve always been slightly suspicious of Proton without really knowing why but this and the previous Trump thing have made those suspicions more hardened. Everyone makes mistakes but to not even do basic checking and to lack the organisation and judgement to implement it is not something that inspires trust in the software they develop.
for a privacy-centered set of software developers to have
(Especially since they’re “not some small-fry company”) No developers would have been involved in this, it was 100% marketing dept and likely some service provider they use.
Of course, but they are a software development company. Its the strategy (or lack of it) I’m criticising, not their ability to write code.
Responded to what
I got the same reply to my support ticket I raised
I’m out of the loop here, what’s this drama about?
Proton is currently sponsoring the far-right French YouTuber Vincent Lapierre.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Lapierre
It’s not just an affiliate link, but a partnership announced in the description and through an entire 2min 20s segment embedded in the video.
Vincent Lapierre’s Wikipedia page is quite explicit about his far-right positioning and includes numerous sources. He worked for several years for a far-right organization founded by Alain Soral, which promotes anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying, conspiracist, sexist, masculinist, transphobic, and homophobic ideas, and who fled to Russia to escape justice.
It’s not a partnership. It’s a normal sponsor segment. Leave it to a right winger to lie about their affiliations.
Vincent and his audience might disagree…
You Really Think Someone Would Do That? Just Go On the Internet and Tell Lies?
I find it all to be very strange.
Proton pays Vincent money for a sponsorship.
According to you, Vincent defames Proton.
Proton doesn’t seem all that worried about the defamation.
I think it is easily believable that it was a single sponsorship and Vincent used the word partnership without even thinking about it, and I also find it easily believable that the sponsorship is something that slipped through the cracks rather than having any meaning, and I find the response from Proton to be acceptable. I just don’t think it is as big a deal as you’re wanting it to be ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I think it is easily believable that it was a single sponsorship and [a man who makes a living on being a political pundit] used the word partnership without even thinking about it
So suddenly the narrative went from Vincent lying, to Vincent making a whoopsie. Odd how fast this stance softened.
Yeah that’s why LurkingLuddite said “it’s not a partnership. It’s a normal sponsor segment. Leave it to a right winger to lie about their affiliations.”
Whenever you see something like this, a wizard did it.
Too late
Too many fucking strikes with too many “oopsie whoopsy we did a fucky wucky”
Proton supports hard right fascists. End of story. No more. Done. Finished. Finito.
