Proton Unveils Private AI

Proton has launched Lumo, a privacy-focused AI assistant that prioritises user data protection. Lumo employs zero-access encryption, ensuring only the user can decrypt and read their chats, with no server-side logs maintained. Conversations are not used to train large language models (LLMs), and the assistant is built upon open-source LLMs optimised and hosted by Proton.

Lumo offers features like text summarisation, code assistance, and email drafting. By default, it avoids web searches for maximum privacy, but users can enable this with privacy-respecting search engines. File uploads are supported for analysis without storing content on Proton's servers. Integration with Proton Drive allows secure analysis of documents from encrypted cloud storage. Lumo is accessible via a website and dedicated iOS and Android applications. A Lumo Plus plan is available for £10.33 a month, providing unlimited chats and larger file upload capabilities.

Proton's CEO, Andy Yen, stated the goal is to offer AI that puts people ahead of profits, challenging the 'surveillance capitalism' of Big Tech. Lumo's architecture prevents third-party access to user information, ensuring data isn't shared with advertisers, governments, or used for LLM training. The service operates on Proton-controlled servers in Europe, subject to Switzerland's privacy laws.