A Swiss IT company that develops privacy-focused services, including Proton Mail, has introduced Lumo, an AI chatbot that can summarize documents, generate code, write emails, and more, while storing data locally on users' devices.
A Swiss IT company that develops privacy-focused services, including Proton Mail, has introduced Lumo, an AI chatbot that can summarize documents, generate code, write emails, and more, while storing data locally on users' devices.
Proton says it will protect this information with “zero-key” encryption, which gives users an encryption key that can only be used to view their content, preventing third parties, including Proton, from accessing the information. This helps ensure that Proton cannot share user data with advertisers or governments, or use it to train large language models, The Verge reports .
Although Lumo has the ability to search the web, Proton disables this feature by default to “ensure maximum privacy for users.” If users enable this feature, Lumo will search the web for answers using “privacy-friendly” search engines.
Additionally, Proton claims that Lumo can analyze uploaded files but does not store any of their information. Users can also link Proton Drive files to Lumo, which should remain end-to-end encrypted when interacting with the chatbot.
Proton is positioning its AI chatbot as an alternative to those offered by larger companies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta AI, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. “Big tech companies are using AI to increase the collection of sensitive user data to accelerate the world’s transition to surveillance capitalism,” Andy Yen, Proton’s CEO and founder, said in the announcement. “Our vision for Lumo is AI that puts people before profit.”
Lumo is powered by several large, open-source programming language models running on Proton servers in Europe, including Nemo from Mistral, Mistral Small 3, OpenHands 32B from Nvidia, and the OLMO 2 32B model from the Allen Institute for AI.
The AI chatbot will handle queries using different models, depending on which one is best suited for a particular request. “For example, programming-related questions are handled by OpenHands, which specializes in coding tasks,” Proton spokesperson Betsy Jones tells The Verge.
You can access Lumo now by going to lumo.proton.me or downloading the Lumo app for iOS and Android.
Users who don't have a Lumo or Proton account can only ask the chatbot a "limited number" of questions each week, and they won't be able to access their chat history.
Meanwhile, users with a free account can view encrypted chat history, upload small files, and add a limited number of chats to favorites.
There is also a Lumo Plus plan priced at $12.99 per month for access to unlimited chats, extended encrypted chat history, unlimited favorites, and the ability to upload large files.
