Proton Unveils Privacy-Focused AI Email Assistant

Proton, renowned for its privacy-centric apps, has launched Proton Scribe, an AI-driven writing assistant designed to help users compose, redraft, and proofread emails efficiently. This new tool continues Proton’s tradition of enhancing productivity tools with a strong focus on privacy.

Following in the footsteps of Google's recent introduction of Gemini AI to Gmail, Proton Scribe aims to offer similar functionalities while ensuring user data remains secure. Proton, a Swiss company known for its secure email, VPN, password manager, calendar, cloud storage, and document services, has developed Proton Scribe to address privacy concerns prevalent among businesses and individuals.

Built on the open-source Mistral 7B language model from French startup Mistral, Proton Scribe emphasizes data security by operating entirely on local devices. This ensures that no user data leaves the device, and the AI does not learn from user interactions, making it ideal for enterprises prioritizing privacy. Furthermore, Proton has made Proton Scribe available under the open-source GPL-3.0 license, facilitating third-party security and privacy audits.

Local Deployment for Enhanced Privacy

Proton Scribe can function entirely on local devices, meaning user data never leaves the device. This approach is particularly significant for businesses concerned about data privacy, as it eliminates the risk of sensitive data exposure to third-party AI providers.

Andy Yen, Proton’s founder and CEO, explained the rationale behind this development: “We realized that whether or not Proton builds AI tools, users are going to use AI, often with significant privacy consequences. Rather than have users copying their sensitive communications into third-party AI tools with poor privacy practices, it is better to build privacy-first AI tools directly into Proton Mail.”

For users less concerned with local deployment, Proton Scribe can also be configured to run on Proton’s servers, potentially offering faster performance depending on the user's hardware. Importantly, Proton assures that no logs are kept and no data is shared with third parties when using the server option.

Features and Future Developments

Once installed, users can generate email drafts by typing prompts, such as “request samples from a supplier,” and hitting the generate button. Proton Scribe will then provide a template email based on the prompt, which users can further edit and customize.

While the tool’s privacy-centric design means its responses may not be highly personalized, Proton has included features like "quick actions" to help users adjust tone, proofread, and refine their drafts.

Proton Scribe is currently available for Proton Mail on web and desktop platforms, with plans to expand to mobile devices. The service costs an additional $2.99 per month for users on Mail Essentials, Mail Professional, or Proton Business Suite plans. Legacy users on Visionary or Lifetime plans can access Proton Scribe for free. Proton is also considering extending this feature to other consumer plans and possibly integrating it into other Proton products, such as their collaborative document editing app.