Proton Lumo Launches as the Most Private AI Assistant You Can Trust

Proton, the Zurich-headquartered privacy-centric tech firm behind services such as Proton Mail and Proton VPN, has ventured into the AI arena with its latest release Lumo, a secure AI assistant to provide productivity features without compromising user privacy. In a data-first world, Proton's Lumo is the exception that doesn't collect or monetize your talk.

The question remains, though: Do we need another AI assistant?

Let’s break down what Lumo brings to the table and whether it’s worth your attention.

What Is Proton Lumo?

Lumo is Proton’s newly unveiled AI assistant, described as a “privacy-first” tool for productivity tasks. From summarizing text to helping draft emails and code, Lumo performs many functions you’d expect from other AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude.

But unlike those tools, Lumo doesn't keep your conversation history on its servers. Instead, the entire chat is saved locally on your device with zero-access encryption—a default security model that Proton has rolled out across all of its products.

Proton guarantees that even they can't intercept your conversations—and they do so by leaving the assistant's code open-source, subject to public review and third-party audit.

Hosted on Open-Source LLMs by Proton

The main distinction with Lumo is that Proton does not employ proprietary or cloud-trained Big Tech Large Language Models (LLMs). Rather, the AI assistant is based on open-source models that are hosted in-house by Proton:

• Nemo (Mistral)

• OpenHands 32B (Nvidia)

• OLMO 2 32B (Allen Institute for AI)

• Mistral Small 3 (Mistral)

By adhering to open-source paradigms, Proton seeks to provide full transparency, and by putting Lumo firmly in the hands of Swiss privacy legislation, securely beyond the reach of U.S. surveillance requirements on data.

Open-source LLMs do have their limitations, though, regarding overall knowledge, rate of processing, and ingenuity in comparison to GPT-4 or Gemini. But for individuals who prioritize privacy over sheen, it's a good trade-off.

Lumo Features

Though Lumo doesn't reinvent the wheel, it does get the basics done:

• Summarizing Text: Whether a lengthy article or technical report, Lumo can summarize information while keeping it accurate.

• Email Drafting: Seamless integration with Proton Mail simplifies writing emails securely.

• Coding Help: Lumo can help with minor programming tasks and code explanations.

• File Upload & Analysis: You can upload files such as PDFs or documents to be analyzed. These are not uploaded to Proton's servers.

• Proton Drive Integration: Scan files that are stored in your encrypted cloud storage without compromising data security.

• Web Search (Optional): Lumo doesn't search the internet by default, but if enabled, it will use privacy-respecting search engines to provide results.

Is Lumo Free?

Yes, Lumo is free for all Proton users. However, a premium plan called Lumo Plus is also available for $12.99/month. This separate subscription (independent of Proton Mail or VPN plans) offers:

• Unlimited chats

• Support for larger file uploads

• Possibly better performance from upgraded backend models

This tier is likely geared toward power users or professionals who want enhanced capabilities without sacrificing privacy.

Is Proton Lumo Really Necessary?

That’s the million-dollar question. Critics argue that Lumo feels like Proton is simply jumping on the AI bandwagon a move driven by industry trends or investor pressure rather than genuine innovation. After all, DuckDuckGo already offers a privacy-conscious AI assistant, and Proton’s offering doesn’t introduce anything radically new, at least not on the surface.

Additionally, its dependency solely on open-source LLMs may hinder its adoption for those who want ChatGPT performance. Although the ethical underpinning is sound, the user experience may be slower or less polished at times.

That said, if data privacy is most important to you, and you're already committed to the Proton environment, Lumo provides a compelling value proposition: AI help that keeps your boundaries intact.

Proton's Lumo AI assistant is the natural follow-up to its secure product suite. It reinforces the company's dedication to safeguarding user privacy in a digital world where everyone else does just the opposite. Its open-source, transparent infrastructure and local encryption practices provide it with a trust advantage.

But whether Lumo will be an everyday staple or another AI helper is up to its ability to grow and adjust to user requirements.

If you're sick of Big Tech eavesdropping on your AI conversations, Lumo could be a worthwhile experiment. If you're seeking cutting-edge features, you might consider looking elsewhere at least for now.