Proton Unveils Lumo, A Privacy-Focused ChatGPT Competitor AI Chatbot

You're likely somewhat comfortable using AI tools for many applications, but you may still be concerned about its privacy implications. However, with a new AI chatbot out in the wild, some may not need to worry about this anymore. Proton has recently released a new, "privacy first" AI model dubbed Lumo.

Proton is one of the leading privacy companies that offers secure services like Proton VPN, Proton Mail, and Proton Pass. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company revealed that Lumo will not only rival other AI models but will give "you an edge when you need it, without demanding personal data in return."  

The company pointed out that big tech today has prioritized the wrong things. Proton went further and claimed that "Instead of using AI to serve people, they're turning people into products — and using AI to accelerate the surveillance-capitalism business model built on advertising, data harvesting, and exploitation."


So what actually makes Lumo different? According to the company, Lumo strictly pursues privacy. So it has promised not to use your conversations to train AI or share your data with third parties. Additionally, it says it does not keep records of your chats on its servers, as everything stays local on your device only. Lumo is also designed to protect your chats with zero-access encryption, ensuring that even Proton cannot read your conversations. 

While some big tech firms claim to protect user data, their commitment cannot exclusively be relied upon. We recently reported that Meta and Google's AI data collection practices have some users very concerned. As such, if the claim from Proton is accurate, it's actually a welcome development as it could bring genuine relief to concerns about data privacy. If you're impressed by these claims and features, you can simply log on to https://lumo.proton.me/ and type in your query.

Here is the big question: Will Lumo be able to match the capabilities of advanced AI models like ChatGPT 4? We will need to wait and see how this rollout is received before we have a firm answer. Regardless, Lumo is live today and standing by.