Proton, the company that introduced the encrypted email service Proton Mail, has now unveiled an AI chatbot with focus on user privacy. Named Lumo, the chatbot can generate code, write email, summarise documents, and much more. Proton has dubbed its AI chatbot as an alternative to ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.
The AI chatbot preserves user privacy while storing data locally on users’ devices. Lumo is powered by several open-source large language models that run on Proton’s servers in Europe, including Mistral’s Nemo, Mistral Small 3, Nvidia’s OpenHands 32B, and the Allen Institute for AI’s OLMO 2 32B model. Lumo can field requests through different models depending on which is better suited for a query.
The company claims that the new chatbot will protect information with “zero-access” encryption, which grants the user an encryption key that allows them exclusive access to their data. This encryption key will block third parties and even Proton from accessing the user content, meaning the company will not be sharing any personal information.
Proton has reportedly used Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for data transmission and “asymmetrically” encrypts prompts, allowing only the Lumo GPU servers to decrypt them.
When it comes to features, Ghost mode ensures that your active chat sessions are not saved, not even on local devices. With the Web search feature, Lumo can look up recent or new information on the internet to add to its current knowledge. It can also understand and analyse your files, but does not keep a record of them. Lastly, integration with Proton Drive makes it simple to add end-to-end encrypted files from your Proton Drive to your Lumo chats.
The chatbot comes with internet search, however, it is disabled by default to ensure privacy. Once enabled, Lumo will deploy privacy-friendly search engines to provide responses to user queries. It can analyse uploaded files, but it does not store any of the data.
Proton Drive files, which are meant to remain end-to-end encrypted while communicating with the chatbot, can also be linked by users to Lumo. The chatbot comes in both a free and premium version. Those without an account with Lumo or Proton, will be able to ask 25 queries per week. They will not be able to access chat histories. On the other hand, users with a free account can ask up to 100 questions per week. Lumo Plus plan is priced at $12.99 a month and comes with unlimited chats, an extended encrypted chat history, and more.
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