Swiss company Proton is introducing its own AI assistant, one that focuses on privacy. According to Proton, the assistant, called Lumo, doesn’t keep any logs. Every chat with the assistant is also encrypted.
The new assistant can be used, for example, to summarise legal documents, write emails, and generate code, according to Proton in a blog post. Currently, the chatbot supports languages such as Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Furthermore, the assistant can search the internet for new or recent information to supplement their own knowledge. It’s also possible to upload and analyse files. However, uploaded material is not stored, and no logs are kept of conversations.
Proton further states that Lumo is fully open source, so anyone can verify that the tool is private and secure. The assistant is also based on open-source language models, but it is unclear which ones are used. The company does state that the assistant runs entirely in Proton’s data centres, which are located in Europe. Proton also states that user conversations are not used to further train the language model. Furthermore, conversations and other data are not shared with third parties.
When a logged-in user uses Lumo, conversations are stored locally on the user’s device. According to Proton, these chats are encrypted with zero-access encryption, meaning even the company cannot read them. This encryption is also used for other Proton services, such as email and Drive. However, if a user does not want the conversations to be stored, Ghost Mode can be enabled. In that case, the chat is deleted as soon as it is closed.
Also paid version
Lumo can be used with or without a Proton account. There’s a free version, but it has limited functionality and only allows users to upload files of a small size. There’s also a paid version starting at €9.99 per month. This version offers unlimited Lumo use and also allows users to upload multiple large files.