Unit employees question the company’s lack of transparency about its military and government work.
According to a comprehensive Waypoint report, several employees have expressed concern about the engine manufacturer’s reluctance to keep up with staff about the nature of projects that could be considered unethical.
Unity has not been shy in promoting its contracts outside the gaming industry: the company is actively promoting its work in other industries such as automation, engineering, transportation, government, military and aerospace on its website (as shown in the image below) – But when it comes to discussing the full scope of these projects internally, the company is more vigilant.
Three sources who spoke to Waypoint said some Unity employees could end up developing technology for military customers without ever knowing it, in large part because Unity often nicknames government and military contracts as “GovTech” initiatives.
Waypoint also obtained a draft memorandum instructing Unit managers to use terms such as “government” and “defense” instead of “military.” While it is unclear whether the note was ever officially released, the language used employees ’concerns.
“We need to be sensitive to the various values and beliefs that people perceive of our commitment to government, specifically to DoD [Department of Defense]”, reads the note, which also contains a list of” do’s and don’ts “, including one telling employees not to” discuss any project involving the use of simulated or virtual weapons or training for hurt another person “.
It seems that Unit employees from various disciplines are left in the dark about how their work could be used. For example, a source explained how an engineer could be working on an artificial intelligence tool without ever knowing that it could be used for military purposes.
“Most Unit AI work empowers other government projects, so this way it can be difficult to assess one’s contribution to government projects,” a source said. “It should be very clear when people get into the part of Unity’s military initiative,” another added.
While sometimes Unit employees may request more information from a manager, the process for doing so seems complicated and in some cases only results in vague responses.
For example, a source explained how they had been tasked with working on what was described as a “location randomization scheme for a government simulation project,” only to find out that the technology would be used to simulate explosion waste on virtual tracks.
In an attempt to reassure employees after they protested against an oil and gas deal, Schlumberger, Unity formed the Sales Ethics Advisory Board (SEAC) to oversee projects and ensure the company avoids problematic customers.
However, the ethics council has also been accused of being deliberately obtuse and reportedly provides limited information on its broader decision-making process. The notion of Unity that forms the SEAC to provide ethical oversight without ever adequately explaining how the group works has failed some wrongly, and although some officials managed to pressure the issue during an internal AMA session in early ‘this year, the responses they received did little to alleviate their concerns.
“It wasn’t quite the disaster I thought it was going to be, but it was great because a lot of people had questions and [Unity] he had very few answers, “said a source who attended the meeting.
“Whether I work directly for the government team or not, I am leveraging the products they sell,” another source said. “Do you want to use your tools to catch the bad guys? Maybe we shouldn’t define who the bad guys are,” added another.
To learn more about the situation at Unity, be sure to read the full story at Waypoint.