Google Employees Meme About How Bad Their AI Is

Summary

The 404 Media Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Google Employees Meme About How Bad Their AI Is
Hosts: Joseph, Sam Cole, Emmanuel Maiberg, Jason Kebler
Date: June 10, 2026

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Overview

This episode centers on two major investigative stories:

1. Emmanuel’s exposé on Google employees using internal memes to mock and express frustration about the company’s AI tools—especially its coding assistant, “Jet Ski.”
2. Jason and Emmanuel’s joint report on internal Microsoft documents revealing the company's explicit intent to make users "addicted" to its new AI assistant.

The discussion offers behind-the-scenes insights into tech industry narratives versus employee experiences, how memes serve as organizational "temperature checks," and the unnerving implications of PR language around AI deployment.

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1. Google Employees Meme About Bad AI

(Starts ~00:57)

Key Points

• Google’s Internal AI Tool Criticized by Employees (Jet Ski)

  • Emmanuel’s story exposes a swell of memes among Google staff deriding the effectiveness and reliability of Jet Ski, Google’s in-house code-generating AI assistant.
  • These memes are widely circulated and upvoted within Google, suggesting broad agreement and significant skepticism about the company’s AI claims.

• Contradictory Messaging from Leadership

  • Google leaders publicly tout that 75% of their code is now AI-generated ([01:30]), a claim met with disbelief by both employees and journalists.
  • Internally, engineers report that AI tools often make mistakes, require heavy human correction, and sometimes slow them down.

• Examples of Employee Memes

  • “Press X to Doubt” from L.A. Noire adapted to mock Google's claim that Jet Ski built an OS autonomously ([01:42]).
    • Emmanuel: “The meme I put at the top of the story sums up the sentiment of employees at Google and how they feel about their AI tools. Specifically Jet Ski, which is Google’s internal AI coding assistant.” [01:42]
  • “Big Forehead Fish” (Asian Sheephead Wrasse) meme lampoons management’s magical thinking about AI productivity ([03:45], [05:20]).

• Pressure to Use AI for Its Own Sake

  • Employees across tech giants report mandates to use AI coding agents, even if these tools aren’t actually improving productivity ([05:06]).
  • The meme culture reveals a disconnect: leadership’s desire to showcase AI adoption for optics versus workers’ lived experience.
    • Emmanuel: “Everybody agrees that they're being heavily pressured to use AI... There's no other goal other than to just show that they use AI. Right? ...And that it’s driving the employees crazy in many cases.” [06:47]

• MemeGen: Google’s Internal Meme Platform

  • Google’s “MemeGen” is a barometer for employee sentiment—a third or more memes are now about AI pressures.
    • Emmanuel: “MemeGen... is like a temperature check on what employees across this giant company are thinking about and talking about and joking about.” [08:40]
  • Management monitors MemeGen, sometimes enforcing censorship (e.g., around controversial topics like Gaza). [08:40]

• Google’s PR Dance: Statements Shift in Real Time

  • Google’s initial statement to 404 Media emphasized “maintaining humans in the loop”; post-publication, they tried to retract that, scrubbing any suggestion that humans should oversee AI ([10:14]-[12:21]).
  • Joseph: “They have explicitly removed the bit that says it's critical we maintain humans in the loop... That's even more telling in my opinion.” [12:21]
  • Emmanuel: “To remove the distinction between somebody writing code and somebody writing code with an AI agent is not a distinction they want to make anymore...” [13:23]

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Notable Quotes/Moments

• Emmanuel on Google’s AI Code Claims:
  • “The idea that 75% of the code at... the most influential tech infrastructure company in the world is being AI generated is like, surely there's... That's not the complete picture.” [05:22]
• Memes as Corporate Thermometer:
  • Emmanuel: “A third or a quarter of all memes at the company are about this subject now and that it spikes whenever Google talks about it publicly.” [09:40]

[Memes Discussed]

• “Press X to Doubt” – L.A. Noire meme adapted for Jet Ski ([01:42])
• "Big Forehead Fish/Asian Sheephead Wrasse" – Worker (diver) harassed by clueless AI evangelist (the fish) ([03:45], follow-up at [15:09] for ID)

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2. Microsoft’s ‘Make People Addicted’ AI Internal Strategy

(Starts ~20:52)

Key Points

• Leaked Microsoft Document: The ‘Addiction’ Strategy

  • Jason and Emmanuel reveal a Microsoft planning document for a coming AI assistant (initially code-named "Claw Pilot," later “Scout”) that opens with Phase 1: “Make people addicted.” [21:28]
    • Jason: “That is pretty crazy to see in an official company document because AI companies have been repeatedly sued for making an addicting product...” [21:50]

• What is Scout/Claw Pilot?

  • Microsoft’s entry in the “agentic AI” arms race: an AI that can perform real actions for the user across Microsoft 365—send emails, schedule meetings, interact with files ([23:38]-[25:36]).
  • Built to move users beyond chatbots into AI-driven action, requiring expansive account permissions.

• How the Document Was Created

  • The strategy doc was itself AI-generated, then “human verified,” including the “make people addicted” phrase (explicitly highlighted in the doc) ([26:15]-[27:18]).
    • Jason: “The actual document… has a subheading… ‘co created turn by turn with AI human verified every sentence, including make people addicted.’” [27:18]

• Rollout Phases

  • 1. Make people addicted
    • Polish the user experience (“ux”), grow the user base, create dependence.
  • 2. Connect with ‘Lobster’
    • Integration with the larger Microsoft agentic AI platform.
  • 3. New Features
    • Further feature expansion, agent-to-agent interactions, mobile tools ([28:00]).

• Shocking Prioritization

  • Security, a critical issue given AI’s account access, is considered a late-phase concern—surprising and alarming to the hosts. ([28:40])

• Internal Reaction

  • Employees were disturbed, both by the explicit use of addiction language and by the company’s failure to prioritize safety.
    • Jason: “It's not like, make a good product that people want to use. It's like, addict people. Addict people...” [29:57]
  • Some staff, sensitive to the real-world impact of addiction, found the terminology offensive and wholly inappropriate ([30:50]).

Notable Quotes

• Joseph:

  • “You're taking notes on the criminal conspiracy and you're putting it in writing. I like, straight up. I think this is going to lead to... legal action. Surely the fact that they just came out and said it...” [22:57]

• Jason:

  • “On the contrary, from making addictive AI products, they made AI products that people are, like, repulsed by and are furious about.” [30:52]

• Industry Norms:

  • Jason: “There’s like, all these other terms... They could have said sticky. Yeah. That probably wouldn't have raised, like, alarm bells, I think. But I think the fact that they use the term addictive, especially in the context of AI companies being sued for making an addictive product, is what set employees off.” [32:45-33:05]

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Segment Timestamps

• [00:00] – Intro and skepticism about AI-generated code percentages
• [01:30] – Emmanuel introduces Google meme story
• [03:45] – Meme examples: Press X to Doubt, Big Forehead Fish
• [05:06] – Origins of the reporting & the pressure to use AI tools
• [08:40] – Google’s internal MemeGen as employee “temperature check”
• [10:14] – Google’s shifting PR statements about AI oversight
• [12:21] – Discussion of strategic language changes in company docs
• [15:09] – The fish meme ID is revealed: Asian sheephead wrasse
• [20:52] – Second story: Microsoft’s ‘Make People Addicted’ internal document
• [23:38] – What OpenClaw/Scout agentic AI does
• [26:15] – “Addiction” strategy: the doc was AI-generated and human verified
• [28:40] – Late-phase security for agentic AI
• [29:57] – Internal employee reaction to “addiction” language
• [32:45] – Nuances of “addictive” vs. “sticky” product lingo

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Tone & Style

The conversation is candid, irreverent, and often darkly humorous. The hosts blend journalistic skepticism with insider-tech wit, never hesitating to call out absurdities in Big Tech PR and internal logic.

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Conclusion

This episode offers an unvarnished, inside look at how both Google and Microsoft wrestle with the realities of AI—from inflated PR claims and internal dissent at Google, to Microsoft’s unapologetic “addiction” strategy and questionable product priorities. For those wondering what it actually feels like for engineers inside these tech giants, and how narrative, meme, and management collide, this is essential listening.

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Transcript

[Emmanuel]

I was just listening to all these CEOs talk about how much of their code is being produced by AI. That just doesn't line up the idea that 75% of the code is like the most influential tech infrastructure company in the world is being AI generated. That's not the complete picture.

[Joseph]

Hello, and welcome to the 404 video podcast, where we bring you unparalleled access to inner worlds, both online and IRL. 404 Media is a journalist family company and needs your support. To subscribe, go to 404 Media Co as well as bonus content every single week. Subscribers also get access to additional episodes where we respond to their best comments. Gain access to that content@404Media co. I'm your host, Joseph, and with me are 404Media co founders Sam Cole.

[Jason Kebler]

Hey.

[Joseph]

Manuel Mayberg.

[Emmanuel]

Hello.

[Joseph]

And Jason Kebler.

[Jason Kebler]

Hi.

[Joseph]

All right, let's get to our first story, which is one that Emmanuel just published. The headline is, Google Employees internally share memes about how its AI sucks. So you've been sent a lot of these memes recently, Emmanuel. We will display these on the YouTube version of the podcast. If you're listening and you'd rather have video, you can always check out the YouTube version. There's a link in the show notes, or you just go to our YouTube channel and obviously subscribe. And then every week you're going to get this, the video version of this podcast.

[Sam Cole]

But

[Joseph]

for those listening and to run us through it, can you just give us some examples of these memes first of all, before we drill down into them?

[Emmanuel]

Sure, yeah. So I really think that the meme I put at the top of the story sums up the sentiment of employees at Google and how they feel about their AI tools. Specifically Jet Ski, which is Google's internal AI coding assistant. And this meme is the Doubt Face X. Press X to Doubt Face from La Noire. Is everybody familiar? I think we should do a survey as we.

[Jason Kebler]

No, really, I didn't super know this meme. Honestly, I got what it was like going for, but. But I don't know this guy. Press X to doubt. It's like press F to pay respects.

[Emmanuel]

But that's right in the game, you're an investigator and you're interrogating different people and you can react to their statements in various ways. And in this one, the main character is making a very skeptical face, and he could press X to doubt. And the impact font says Jet Ski built a functional operating system autonomously, which is something that Google recently claimed at its Annual IO conference, which. It's an annual conference. They've done it for many years. They just talk about, like, all their biggest upcoming stuff. And understandably, this year it's been heavily focused on AI. They showed off a bunch of AI products and they made a bunch of outlandish claims, like their AI was able to build an operating system from scratch. A lot of the memes are about Jet Ski, but a lot of them are also in response to stuff that they saw at ieo. So I think that's a really good contrast, which is what the story is about, essentially, and kind of like the line of reporting I've been interested in in the past few weeks, which is what is Google saying publicly? What. What other companies are saying publicly about their AI products and what the people who actually make them and use them say about them internally.

[Joseph]

Yeah. I'll just give one more example. There's the. The big forehead fish. Which y.

[Emmanuel]

Do people know this meme before we get into it?

[Jason Kebler]

I know that one.

[Sam Cole]

Yeah. The diver.

[Emmanuel]

It's. It's. It's originally a video of a. Of a diver doing some, like, meticulous work. And I don't know, what is it? A shipwreck or coral or something? And a fish. I'm sorry, I don't know the name of a fish. It's probably not even a fish. It's some sort of sea mammal. I don't know.

[Sam Cole]

It's a.

[Jason Kebler]

It's a dolphin with a giant head. It's not a giant head. Dolphin is the name.

[Emmanuel]

And he's coming up to the diver and he's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? You know, he's like, bugging him.

[Joseph]

And then in this internal Google AI version, the fish is like, aren't you using AI? Why is it still taking so much time? AI is magic. Are you a Muggle? New best AI tool launched just today. And the scuba diver is just trying to get on with their job. Like, that is the sentiment that seems to be coming out from these memes that isn't. Well, sometimes, as you say, it's about specific products like Jet Ski, this internal tool, or whatever. And then it's like we're being pressured to use these AI tools even when we may not want to, which kind of reflects on the earlier stuff you had about the leaderboard at Amazon. Right. And this is just like another way that employees are sort of saying how they feel about this. Right. Is that sort of the vibe you got?

[Emmanuel]

Yeah. I actually wanted to talk a little bit about how I got into these stories, which is sometimes we get stories because people send us tips, sometimes it's because we see something in the news, and sometimes it's just because we have a feeling that something is a story. And in this case, I was just listening to all these CEOs talk about how much of their code internally now is being produced by AI. 20%, 50%. Google, famously, as I mentioned in the lead of the story, more than 75% of the code at the company is being produced by AI. And judging by everything we know about these AI tools and how often they make mistakes, this is something we've covered in many ways and also specifically about AI coding agents. It's like that just doesn't line up unless Google has some super secret, super powerful AI that doesn't make mistakes like every other LLM does. It just like the idea that 75% of the code at, like, one of the biggest tech companies, one of the most influential tech infrastructure company in the world, is being AI generated is like, surely there's like a different. That's not the complete picture. Right. And we strategically published a story that was based on a lot of conversation that was happening on Reddit that showed exactly this, that people were complaining about how they're being pressured to use these AI tools to produce code, whether it was useful or not. We kind of did a broad story about that sentiment and asked for tips. And I would say this is a strategy that we've used forever. We started using it at Motherboard. It's very effective. I've never seen it be this effective before in my career. I published a story and I've heard from dozens of employees across the industry that were dying to talk about this problem. And yeah, I mean, to your question, it's like this is the sentiment at Google and this is the sentiment at other companies is some people feel like the AI tools are useful, some people feel like they need more work and they'll get there eventually. There's like a broad spectrum of what the sentiment is about AI tools, from very positive to completely apocalyptically negative. But everybody agrees that they're being heavily pressured to use AI, that that pressure is. There's no other goal other than to just show that they use AI. Right? It's like it's not based on outcomes, it's not based on increasing productivity, it's not based on anything like that. Just like we want to show that we're using AI whether it's helpful or not, and that it's driving the employees crazy in many cases.

[Joseph]

Yeah. And they're not just making these memes, but then people internally at Google are like essentially upvoting them. Right. Or reacting to them. Like some of these memes have hundreds and hundreds of likes or whatever. So it's not just the people making the memes. Everybody's like, yeah, this fucking sucks as well. I mean, just want to. Maybe people don't know this, but these tech companies have internal message boards. We've seen stuff from the past from Facebook and I think other tech companies over the years. Just briefly, what is this message board for Googlers? Is it like a forum? Is it just for memes? What's the deal?

[Emmanuel]

Yeah, so I think this is pretty weird and funny, but Google has many ways of communicating internally. They have Slack and different forms and company registries and all that. But they also have something called Meme Gen, which is like an internal social media just for producing memes. And this has been in the news before because in a way it's like a temperature check on what employees across this giant company are thinking about and talking about and joking about that you can see what they're memeing about. So I think the New York Times had a story maybe late last year about how they actually started to enforce some rules around the memes that people were making about conversations around Gaza. So that's been in the news. So it's like management definitely keeps an eye on it. In terms of AI, what I've heard is that it's like a third or a quarter of all memes at the company are about this subject now and that it spikes whenever Google talks about it publicly, like they did in IO or when something breaks down internally. Right. Like everybody's trying to use Jet Ski, Jet Ski breaks and then everybody rushes to Memegen to make memes about it. So it's like a dominant sentiment at the company, or at least it's one way to measure it.

[Joseph]

Yeah, it's super interesting in my opinion. So Google gave you this statement that I'm just going to read out. We encourage our engineers to vigorously test and critique our internal tools. That candid feedback loop is vital to how we build technology. AI coding models are designed to assist developers, but it's critical that we maintain humans in the loop, including the oversight and expertise of our world class engineering talent. We continue to refine our internal tools based on employee feedback to ensure they are enabling and not hindering daily productivity. Okay, sure, whatever. You get that statement, Emmanuel. We then publish the piece and I think you get an email just before or Just after. But Google wants to change their statement. Like, can you explain what the deal with that is?

[Emmanuel]

Yeah. So I published a story with their statement. And then right after I sent out the story in our newsletter and publish it on our website, I get an email from the same PR person. He was like, actually, do we have time to update that statement? And I said, I just published. But obviously if you want, like us to update the statement or add another statement, we could do that.

[Joseph]

If there's more interesting information for our readers should know that sort of thing. Maybe they legitimately missed out an important detail or something. Maybe.

[Emmanuel]

Yeah. And then he sent the updated statement. Do you want to read that one?

[Joseph]

I don't have it in front of me.

[Emmanuel]

Yeah. We encourage our engineers to vigorously test and critique our internal tools. That candid feedback loop, even via our internal meme generator, is vital to how we build technology. We continue to refine our internal tools based on employee feedback to ensure we are delivering the best experience that maximizes daily productivity. So I don't know how you would. What do you read in that edit? I'm not sure, but clearly a lot of eyes on this.

[Joseph]

I mean, the thing that stood out to me was that they have explicitly removed the bit that says it's critical we maintain humans in the loop. I was like, that was actually a pretty interesting thing to include in your statement. Like saying, hey, we are bullish on AI, but it's very important that humans are still involved. Wait, scrap that. We don't want that in the statement anymore. That's even more telling in my opinion.

[Emmanuel]

What do you think it means? Because I have a take on that as well. But what is that signaling?

[Joseph]

I think you'll have a more informed take than me, but for me, it's probably, or could be just a PR move in that. Wait. We don't want to acknowledge that we probably should have humans in the loop when we're talking about 75% of code in Google is now AI generated and stuff. It's like, no, no, no, no. We're all in on AI and we don't want to give even the perception to, I don't know, investors, whoever the market. I don't know that we're not that. So for me, it was that sort of positioning. But what do you think?

[Emmanuel]

No, I think that's spot on. I will like scoop myself on the pod because I haven't decided if I want to publish a story about this yet. But another way that I've seen that same messaging expressed internally at Google is There is a document that software engineers at the company can refer to for expectations, like soft expectations. It's not something that says you have to work this way and this is how you write code. But it's like, here are best practices. Right? And there was a message that was sent out in the last few days that edited that document, which is already filled with a bunch of guidance about AI use. And the note about the update highlighted the fact that AI coding, or AI assisted coding, is now just referred to as coding. So it's like to remove the distinction between somebody writing code and somebody writing code with an AI agent is not a distinction they want to make anymore, which I think is sort of the same idea. You want, you want. You want it. You want to show that it's like a completely normal, legitimate way that the company works now and that may not include a human in the future.

[Joseph]

Right? Yeah. That is really interesting. All right, we'll leave that there. When we come back after the break, we're going to talk about Jason's story on Microsoft's basically saying the quiet part out loud. We'll be breaking.

[Sam Cole]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Emmanuel]

Breaking news.

[Sam Cole]

It's about Lego.

[Jason Kebler]

It's the Asian sheephead wrasse. Is the type of fish in the meme.

[Emmanuel]

Is it a fish?

[Jason Kebler]

It's a fish, not a dolphin. It's native to the western Pacific Ocean. It lives near Korea and China and Japan.

[Emmanuel]

Respect to the fish.

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah.

[Sam Cole]

And it's super crazy because it looks

[Jason Kebler]

like a normal fish when it's a kid, but then as an adult, it becomes like, it grows this big, like, bulb on its head, just like me.

[Joseph]

For real? Yeah. All right, we'll be right back after this.

[Sam Cole]

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[Joseph]

All right. And we, we are back. The headline of this one by Jason is Microsoft wants. Oh, sorry, it's double bylined, isn't it? It was originally Jason, then Emmanuel wrote as well. I'm going to acknowledge that. Apologies written by both of you. Microsoft wants to make people addicted to its new AI Assistant internal documents reveal. So Jason, just tell us about this addiction line first. We'll get into the different phases and stuff. But this is obviously the most important part. What is this internal document and what's it saying about addiction?

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah, so it is an internal document about a new product that when I was writing this article had not been announced or released yet. And it was called Claw Pilot and it was basically Microsoft's attempt to use OpenClaw on its Microsoft 365 products. We can talk about what all that means in a minute. But basically it was a strategy document for this upcoming product and it had like three phases for the deployment of this product and sort of like what the plan was. And phase one was, quote, make people addicted. And that is pretty crazy to see in an official company document because AI companies have been repeatedly sued for making an addicting product. They've been repeatedly like attacked by, I mean, correctly so. But, but basically it's like that, that word addicted and addiction is like a third rail for social media, for Internet companies, for. For artificial intelligence that like politicians don't like that, regulators don't like that courts don't like, like that sort of thing. And here, here it was as them putting it as the very first thing in this strategy document for this new product.

[Joseph]

Yeah, you're taking notes on the criminal conspiracy and you're pulling it in writing. I like, straight up. I think this is going to lead to like some sort of legal action. Surely the fact that they just came out and said it, but we'll talk about that in a minute. So they're preparing.

[Jason Kebler]

It's definitely like a they admit it situation, you know.

[Joseph]

Right, right. So eventually then they actually launch this product and then we publish or. Sorry, they announced this product and we publish on the same day and that's called Scout. Now Right. Before we get into sort of more about the document, just what is this product then? Like it's one of these new agentic AIs that goes and does stuff for you and this is like Microsoft's stab at it.

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah. So basically for a while Silicon Valley was obsessed with OpenClaw, which was an open source. Is an open source tool that allows you to create AI agents which are basically like, it's AI that does stuff. So it's AI that can send emails, it's AI that can add things to your calendar, it's AI that can kind of like act on your behalf.

[Sam Cole]

And to do this you need to

[Jason Kebler]

give it access to a bunch of your accounts or you need to make accounts for it. So you either need to, like, have a standalone, like, online world for your AI agent where they have their own email address, they have their own, you know, like, calendar, they have their own, in some cases, bank account. Like, the, the things that people were doing with openclaw were quite wild and led to like, all sorts of crazy things happening where, you know, they were like, making phone calls. And I say they because I don't know what else to call them. They're not people. But like, I'm just using that terminology not to anthropomorphize these agents. But basically this like, went super viral. And then every big AI company was like, oh, we need some version of this, because right now we're basically stuck in chatbot land, where you talk to a chatbot and you have to then like copy paste the email that it writes for you over into Outlook and send it. And so this is basically like Microsoft's attempt to take OpenClaw and to integrate it into their products. And so Scout is what they're ultimately calling this. It is an agentic AI that will live on Microsoft 365. Meaning that, yes, it can like, add to your calendar, it can send emails, it can like, maybe it can like

[Joseph]

delete files, it can like in OneDrive or something, presumably.

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah, yeah. It can like interact with like all the Microsoft products that you have and then also with like Windows more broadly.

[Joseph]

I mean, that's when it would start to get a little bit crazy and you're going to end up like that meta employee who deleted their entire inbox or whatever. So that's the idea. That's the product. As you already said, this is what Microsoft wants to make people addicted to. The actual quote is make people addicted. Right. And they, they want to do that with this. What is the idea after that? Because this document lays out a couple other phases, right? Yeah.

[Jason Kebler]

So I think it's important to say that the document itself was written by AI. So the person who is doing this is a Microsoft executive named Omar Shaheen. And as he describes it, he's now written many blog posts and LinkedIn posts about this, and all of them have been AI generated, for what it's worth. Like, very obviously AI generated one, you can tell. But then also Pangram, which is the tool that we've mentioned a few times before that detects AI writing is like, this is 100% AI. And so it's. There is. That can be, not necessarily foolproof, but they are AI generated for sure, because it reads that way. But then Also the actual document that we obtained says that it was generated by AI with. It's like, let me see exactly what

[Joseph]

it says, like assisted or it says

[Jason Kebler]

co create the document that we obtained or that we saw and wrote about. At the top it has Omar Shaheen's name on it, but then it has a subheading and it says quote, co created turn by turn with AI human verified every sentence, including make people addicted. Including make people addicted, yeah. And so I just say that because phases two and three are like inscrutable to me. They don't really make very much sense,

[Joseph]

they're kind of boring.

[Jason Kebler]

So phase one is make people addicted. Continue shipping the standalone claw pilot experience, Polish the ux, grow the user base and build the skill and tool ecosystem that makes people depend on it daily. This is already happening organically. Phase two is connect with Lobster. Lobster is like the broader Microsoft plan to like integrate OpenClaw in its products and like have a Gentic AI more or less. And then phase three is agentic identity and new significant planned features. It says once connected, expand into mobile app for voice governed skills and MCP Marketplace agent to agent collaboration, co creation tools for team level skill authoring and deeper MCP server ecosystem integration with the Graph Teams enterprise MCP offering. So that is like some gobbledygook, like product stuff. And it's basically saying like they're going to add features to it, like they're focusing on the core product, trying to make people addicted to it and then they're going to add features and like new abilities to it. And later in the document it starts talking about how like, eventually they will need to worry about security, which I think is kind of funny because security is like really critical with a tool like this because you're giving it access to do stuff on your behalf. It's not just giving you like canned answers that then you need to act upon, it's like acting for you.

[Joseph]

And so as we've seen with the Meta AI chatbot that you covered, where people were prompting the Meta AI to give them access to Instagram accounts, Like when you give these AIs access to actual accounts and stuff, shit's going to get really, really crazy, really, really quick. So Jason, what was sort of the reaction of some of the people you spoke to about this document? Because it's one thing for us to see the document and go, whoa, that's kind of crazy. But what did people inside Microsoft think?

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah, I mean we got the document because Microsoft employees were like, whoa, this language is crazy. And Also, frankly, we're kind of, like, upset about it. Like, we're upset that this is the explicit strategy that is being written down. It's not like, make a good product that people want to use. It's like, addict people. Addict people. And notably, I mean, Microsoft has not been super good at making addictive AI products, as in they've launched a bunch of different things. Like, Copilot through GitHub is probably their most successful one, but it's been kind of surpassed by Claude Code and a few others. Well, I guess it's probably number two after Claude Code in terms of usage, I would think.

[Sam Cole]

But there's been a few things that

[Jason Kebler]

Microsoft has tried to launch where it was like, an AI assistant integrated into Windows that would take, like, snapshots of your computer and things like this, and people were really mad about it. And so, like, on the contrary, from making addictive AI products, they made AI products that people are, like, repulsed by and are furious about. And so I think that part of this is them being like, let's make one that people, like, actually want to use. But then they're. They're couching in this language that is, like, quite harmful. It's like addiction also, you know, it has, like, you know, like, tones to drug addiction and alcoholism and, like, all of these sorts of things. And so some of the employees that I heard from were like, I have friends who have addiction problems. I have, like, family who have addiction problems. And so, like, the fact that this is our explicit goal is, like, offensive to me. And I don't like it. I'll also mention that, like, the document says that they had been piloting this internally on more than a thousand employees. So more than a thousand employees were using it. And that includes Satya Nadella, the CEO. Like, that's what the document said, at least that. That he was using it. And then it says, quote, claw Pilot has organically grown into one of the most requested internal tools at Microsoft. And so it seems like for them, they're just like, we. We have another chance to launch another AI assistant. Another, like, AI product. This one should be addictive because, like, we want it to be sticky. We want it to.

[Sam Cole]

You know, there's like, all these other

[Jason Kebler]

terms that one could use.

[Joseph]

They could have said sticky.

[Jason Kebler]

Yeah. That probably wouldn't have raised, like, alarm bells, I think. But I think the fact that they use the term addictive, especially in the context of AI companies being sued for making an addictive product, is what set employees off.

[Joseph]

Yeah. And what is. Might trigger some lawsuits I imagine at least some people are exploring that. As I said, we'll leave that there. If you're listening to the free version of the podcast, I'll now play us out. But if you are a paying 404 media subscriber, we're going to talk about a big, big Lego drama and companies manipulating Reddit. You'll see what we mean in the Subscribers Only section. You can subscribe and gain access to that content at 404 Media co. As a reminder, 404 Media is journalist founded and supported by subscribers. If you do wish to subscribe to 404 Media and directly support our work, please go to 404 Media C. You'll get unlimited access to our articles and an ad free version of this podcast. You'll also get to listen to the Subscribers Only section where we talk about a bonus story each week. This podcast is produced by Alyssa Midcalf. Another way to support us is by leaving a five star rating and review for the podcast. That stuff really helps us out. This has been 404 Media. We'll see you again next week.

[Emmanuel]

It.