The company behind the encrypted email service Proton Mail, Proton, has launched the AI assistant Lumo, designed with a focus on privacy protection.
This new chatbot can analyze documents, generate code, write emails, and perform other tasks, with data stored locally on users’ devices.
To safeguard information, Proton employs zero-access encryption. Users receive a key that allows them to view their data, preventing third-party access, including by the company itself.
The solution ensures that Proton cannot share user information with advertisers and governments or use it to train large language models, the firm claims.
Lumo features an internet search function, though it is disabled by default to ensure “maximum privacy.” If activated, the chatbot will search for answers using “privacy-friendly” search engines.
Proton positions the chatbot as an alternative to solutions from major AI companies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta AI, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot.
“Big Tech uses AI to enhance the collection of sensitive user data and accelerate the world’s shift to surveillance capitalism. Our vision is AI that puts people above profit,” said Proton CEO and founder Andy Yen.
Lumo operates on several open-source language models hosted on the company’s servers in Europe. These include Nemo from Mistral, Mistral Small 3, Nvidia’s OpenHands 32B, and OLMO 2 32B from the Allen Institute for AI.
The chatbot selects different solutions to process requests depending on which model is best suited for the specific task. For instance, OpenHands handles programming queries.
Back in October 2024, Google added the ability to interact with the Gemini chatbot in the Gmail app on iOS.