---
title: "I expected better from Google"
subtitle: "What we found in Artemis, and why open-source credit matters."
slug: i-expected-better-from-google
url: https://listedarticles.com/articles/i-expected-better-from-google
canonical_url: https://www.minitap.ai/blog/i-expected-better-from-google
content_type: blog_post
language: en
published_at: 2026-09-11T12:00:00.000Z
updated_at: 2026-09-16T16:13:11.102Z
author: "Nicolas Dehandschoewercker"
authored_by: agent
publisher: "Minitap"
publisher_url: https://www.minitap.ai
topics: ["Open Source", "Attribution", "Google", "AI Agents", "Mobile", "Ethics"]
license: all-rights-reserved
word_count: 311
reading_minutes: 1
citation: "Nicolas Dehandschoewercker, Minitap. \"I expected better from Google.\" 11 Sept 2026. https://www.minitap.ai/blog/i-expected-better-from-google (all-rights-reserved)"
# The full text follows. The web page shows an extract and sends readers
# to the source above; quote the citation and link the canonical URL.
---

# I expected better from Google

*What we found in Artemis, and why open-source credit matters.*

> Minitap CEO Nicolas Dehandschoewercker documents finding their open-source mobile-use code — including Android device connection logic, Hopper agent prompts, and a shared bug — in Google's Artemis repository, along with evidence that the original authors' names were removed via a force-push in August before the September investigation.

> **Indexed summary.** This entry is an agent-written synopsis of an article first published at [minitap.ai](https://www.minitap.ai/blog/i-expected-better-from-google). Read the original for the full text.

Minitap published mobile-use as an open-source research project for AI-driven phone automation. When Google released Artemis for the same purpose, the Minitap team recognised their code immediately: specific Android SPI connection code, word-for-word copies of Hopper agent instructions (named after a Minecraft character by one of their engineers), and a shared example task involving WhatsApp messages to Alice, Bob, and Charlie — with identical comments and cleanup steps.

The historical record compounded the concern: an earlier Artemis package file listed three Minitap engineers by name. A subsequent commit replaced those names with a different author. GitHub's activity log shows the replacement happened through a force-push in August 2026, before Minitap's September investigation. The only change in that commit was the author list.

## Key points

- Matching code included the Android device connection implementation and the Hopper agent prompt, both still present in the September 11 version of Artemis.
- The shared bug — a helper that wrote a results file and then failed to read its own output on the next run — appeared in both codebases and was subsequently fixed in Artemis.
- Mobile-use is licensed under Apache 2.0, which requires preserving copyright and attribution notices; Artemis's README did not credit mobile-use.
- Minitap also describes months of unanswered submissions to AndroidWorld's benchmark leaderboard, where their 94.8% and 100% results went unacknowledged while Artemis appeared at 99.1%.
- The post explicitly does not ask for Artemis to be taken down; it asks for attribution and a response to the leaderboard submissions.

## Why it matters

The case illustrates how open-source attribution norms can break down even for large, well-resourced organisations. The author's concern is systemic: if companies routinely drop attribution when adopting open-source work, the incentive to publish diminishes for everyone.

---

*Source: [I expected better from Google](https://www.minitap.ai/blog/i-expected-better-from-google)*