Want AI that keeps your chat private? Meet Proton's Lumo
What's the story
Proton, the company behind the encrypted email service Proton Mail, has launched a new AI assistant called Lumo. The innovative chatbot is designed to summarize documents, generate code, write emails and more. What makes Lumo unique is its focus on user privacy, employing 'zero-access' encryption to ensure that only users can access their data.
Privacy assurance
Third parties, including Proton itself, can't access your information
Proton has promised to keep user information safe with "zero-access" encryption. This means that users will get an encryption key that only they can use to view their content. This way, third parties including Proton itself can't access this information. The company says this approach prevents sharing of user data with advertisers or governments and its use for training large language models.
Functionality details
No data is saved during interactions
Despite having web search capabilities, Proton has disabled the feature by default for maximum privacy. If activated, Lumo uses "privacy-friendly" search engines to find answers. The chatbot can also analyze uploaded files without saving any information. Users can connect their Proton Drive files to Lumo as well, ensuring end-to-end encryption during interaction with the chatbot.
Market positioning
A privacy-focused alternative to AI chatbots from Google and OpenAI
Proton is positioning Lumo as a privacy-focused alternative to AI chatbots from big tech companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Microsoft. Proton CEO Andy Yen said in the announcement that "Big Tech is using AI to supercharge the collection of sensitive user data to accelerate the world's transition to surveillance capitalism." He added that "Our vision for Lumo is AI that puts people ahead of profits."
Tech specs
Runs on several open-source large language models
Lumo runs on several open-source large language models hosted on Proton's servers in Europe. These include Mistral's Nemo, Mistral Small 3, NVIDIA's OpenHands 32B, and Allen Institute for AI's OLMO 2 32B model. You can access Lumo by visiting lumo.proton.me or downloading the app on your iOS and Android devices.
Subscription details
Limited features for non-registered users
Users without a Lumo or Proton account can only ask the chatbot a "limited number" of questions each week and won't have access to their chat histories. Free account holders can view an encrypted chat history, upload small files, and favorite a limited number of chats. There is also a $12.99-per-month Lumo Plus plan that offers unlimited chats, extended encrypted chat history, unlimited favorites, and large file uploads.