Proton has launched another tool aimed at helping users nail those important emails.
Proton Scribe, a new generative AI writing assistant integrated within Proton Mail, gives users the usual array of GenAI functionalities, such as composing and editing messages.
However, unlike many of its key rivals including the generally available Gemini for Workspace and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which also integrate into their respective productivity suites, Proton’s tool promises maximum privacy.
Is Proton Scribe the most secure publicly available AI to date?
Recent months have seen much uproar among workers and consumers when it comes to the safe and responsible handling of their data, with many companies obscuring how they use prompts, entries and attachments to train their AI models.
Acknowledging these concerns and recognising that three in five (60%) workers would like to use AI despite four in five (79%) being concerned about the use of their private data for training purposes, Proton Scribe promises never to use data from users’ inboxes. The company backed up its claim by asserting that the standard end-to-end encryption makes this impossible.
Proton also noted that it’s built in-house, so there are no reliances on other companies such as OpenAI or Google.
The company added: “Proton Scribe’s on-device AI setting leverages efficient models to do all processing locally. This means that no data ever leaves the user’s device, so users can benefit from AI without compromising their privacy.”
The tool, which is built in-house, uses the Mistral 7B large language model, which is open-source, however the company's commitment is to security and privacy, not Mistral, therefore it has not ruled out switching LLM in the future.
Proton founder Andy Yen said that the move came about after the realization that customers would use AI tools regardless of whether they were built by Proton or not, thus a secure Proton tool would only serve to improve privacy and security.
Proton Scribe is available as an add-on for $2.99 per month for Mail Essentials, Mail Professional, and Proton Business Suite customers, with Visionary and Lifetime subscribers getting free access.
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