You probably know Unity as a popular game engine, but Unity Technologies, the company behind the tool, not only makes money with aspiring, established game developers. He also hires jobs with various entities outside of the games, including the government and, fundamentally, the Department of Defense. In accordance with a long Vici report published today, some employees are not included in the full scope of this work. Some are not even aware that their own efforts are going towards these contracts.
Imagine thinking that you are only helping to make video games, only to discover that your work is also becoming a war.
If you’ve played video games, you’ve probably encountered Unity at some point, as the main product was used to create it all. Cities: Skylines a Autumn boys a Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator. The company, founded in 2005, was made public on the New York Stock Exchange last year and is currently valued at $ 33 billion. Earlier this month, Unity bought Parsec, the gaming streaming platform, for $ 320 million.
Speaking to three former and current Unity employees, all of whom were granted anonymity for fear of reprisals, Vici I learned that much of the hiring of the company has to do with artificial intelligence (AI) programming. Much of this is officially carried out under Unity’s “GovTech” department, but since some of the company’s jobs cross departments, that means some employees could work on technology that would help military initiatives without even know they do.
Vici located several agreements signed with the Department of Defense, including two six-figure contracts for “modeling and simulation prototypes” with the United States Air Force. According to reports, at a full meeting at the hands of Unity earlier this year, the company was only able to name a GovTech contract that was not with the Department of Defense.
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“It should be very clear when people are getting into the part of Unity’s military initiative,” he said Vicisaid anonymous sources, who echoed an apparent sentiment from the entire company.
CEO John Riccitiello (yes, the same one who used to run EA … twice), responded to employees through Unity’s internal Slack and promised a hand-held meeting with employees tomorrow.
“I work directly or not for the government team, I am promoting the products they sell. Want to use your tools to catch the bad guys? Maybe we shouldn’t focus on defining who the bad guys are, ”a source said Vici, whose report you can read here.