Couldn't you ask the same of most programmers? One way or another, everybody is pushing paper or pixels. Is the adtech developer at Google, FB, Amazon somehow morally superior to a finance bro that takes a job at Carlyle Group?

Depends on how you interpret what a programer's role and skin in the game is. by the Google/FB/Amazon level, the programmer is just another cog in the machine being told what to make by a director, who reports to/with some MBAs.

For smaller companies, I'd say programmers have done their share of good and evil. the AI sector is in real time gray area with some very malicious actions not too long ago to try and be first to market.