The privacy app developer company Proton has introduced a new writing assistant that uses artificial intelligence. This assistant helps users compose emails by following simple instructions and can also compose and proofread an email before sending it.
With this introduction, Proton continues its history of imitating several of Google’s products and features in the productivity tools space. Last month, Google integrated its Gemini artificial intelligence into Gmail to assist users in composing and summarizing emails, and now Proton is emulating this example with its own adaptation.
As expected with Proton, a Swiss company known for a suite of privacy-focused apps spanning email, VPN, password manager, calendar, cloud storage and documents, its new assistant is aimed at individuals concerned about the disclosure of confidential information to third-party artificial intelligence providers.
The new tool is called Proton Scribe and is based on Mistral 7B, an open-source language model developed by French AI company Mistral. Proton intends to make adjustments to the model to optimally fit its use case. In addition, Proton has decided to offer Scribe as open-source software, under the GPL-3.0 license, making it easier for third parties to perform security and privacy audits.
Becoming a local resident
Proton Scribe can be fully integrated locally, meaning that user information remains on the device. Additionally, Proton ensures that its AI assistant will not gain knowledge from user data, which is especially relevant in business environments where confidentiality is paramount.
The challenge Proton is striving to address is genuine: businesses have been less willing to embrace the generative AI revolution due to concerns about data confidentiality. This first edition of Proton Scribe could help mitigate those concerns.
“We see that regardless of whether Proton develops AI tools, users will employ AI, which can have significant privacy implications,” Yen said. “Rather than users handing off their sensitive communications to third-party AI tools with questionable privacy practices, it would be better to design privacy-first AI tools directly into Proton Mail.”
For those who are not as concerned about security, Scribe can also be set up to run through Proton's servers. This should result in faster execution, depending on the users' hardware.
For those interested in using Proton Scribe on their own devices, they are asked to download the model once to their device. From then on, the AI model will run locally on the device without the need to connect to external servers.
For people who use this service on Proton servers, the company would like to emphasize that no logs are stored or data shared with third parties.
"The message entered by the user is the only one sent to the server, and no information is saved once the email draft has been created," a company representative said.
Proton Scribe Settings. Image: Proton.
Once Proton Scribe has been set up, users have the ability to compose a message, for example, “request samples from a supplier,” and then hit the generate button.
Proton Scribe: composing an email. Image: Proton.
Proton Scribe then creates an email template using the provided theme, which can be edited and customized by the user.
These privacy rules have at least one major drawback: because Proton Scribe doesn't use local data, your responses won't be particularly personalized or contextual; they'll likely be generic.
However, he explained that he has incorporated additional features called "quick actions" to make it easier for users to modify drafts, such as adjusting the tone, correcting and summarizing the content.
“Going forward, we will strive to improve Proton Scribe, including context, among other things, while maintaining privacy,” Proton said in a statement.
Proton Scribe: editing options. Image: Proton.
While Proton Scribe is currently focused on email, the company has mentioned the possibility of expanding this tool to its other products in the future, given the demand. A logical integration would be with its recently launched collaborative document editing app.
Starting today, Proton Scribe's writing assistant will be available for Proton Mail on both the web and desktop versions. The company has confirmed its intention to expand this tool to mobile devices in the future. Cost-wise, Proton Scribe is primarily aimed at business usersThose with Mail Essentials, Mail Professional or Proton Business Suite can pay an additional $2,99 per month to use the compose assistant.
Additionally, people on one of Proton's older, limited-availability plans, such as Visionary or Lifetime, will also have the ability to use Proton Scribe at no additional cost. The company has said it may extend this feature to other consumer plans in the future.
