As a result, Riccitiello promised in a follow-up memo that the matter would be discussed in the company's next town hall meeting, scheduled for next week. You learn pretty quick, though, that cozying up to warfare profiteers is the fastest way to make money pretty much universally in the tech industry."Īnother source said that employees are "empowering" the products Unity's government team is selling, even if they're not working on them directly.Īfter being contacted by Vice for comment, Unity CEO John Riccitiello released an internal statement reassuring employees that the company's military contracts "are very restrictive," and that "we have not nor will we support programs where we knowingly violate our principles or values." In a separate statement, the company also said that it has an internal Sales Ethics Advisory council, which is a group of employees "from diverse backgrounds, geographies and parts of the company help evaluate upcoming business opportunities that present potential risks or may be controversial." According to Unity, it has declined partnerships that don't align with its principles on the recommendation of that council.īut Riccitiello's internal memo sparked a backlash, according to another source, who said that a large number of employees are only just becoming aware of Unity's military partnerships now, and while a few, "mostly executives and upper management," have a strong "support the troops" attitude, most aren't very happy about it. "I got into AI with the expectation that I'd be building technology 'for the greater good' or some nonsense like that. "I came to Unity explicitly because I naively believed their marketing around 'empowering creators' and 'making the world a better place' or whatever," one source said. Artificial intelligence development for videogame purposes, for instance, may also end up in military-related projects, without developers being aware that it happened. You learn pretty quick, though, that cozying up to warfare profiteers is the fastest way to make money pretty much universally in the tech industry.ĭespite that, three anonymous sources, all current and former Unity employees, told Vice that ethical concerns arise from the potential crossover between military and non-military projects.
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