Proton Mail Adds an Open-Source AI Writing Assistant to Take on Gmail

People who don't like the user data-hungry nature of Gmail usually look towards privacy-focused options like Proton Mail, Tuta, StartMail, etc. Gone are the days when such services were lacking in terms of features and accessibility.

Nowadays, they are setting the standard for email services globally, with Big Tech having to learn a thing or two from them.

Proton Mail has been one of those services that's been constantly evolving to one-up its competition by introducing new functionalities to the service. In a recent announcement, the developers introduced an open-source AI-powered feature for it called “Proton Scribe”.

Let's check it out! 😃

Proton Scribe: Wield The Power of AI

With an initial focus on business users, Proton Scribe is a privacy-focused AI writing assistant for Proton Mail, which can help users compose emails based on a prompt.

It can also help them proofread or shorten the contents of a mail, with the added ability to change the tone of the language used, for more clearly conveying a message.

a screenshot of proton scribe proofread and shorten action buttons

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Do note that Proton Scribe can be disabled, if not required.

By default, all the processing happens locally, on the user's device, with no sensitive information being sent over to Proton, not even for training the AI models being used thanks to Proton's zero-access encryption tech.

a screenshot of proton scribe configuration options

Users also have an option to run it on Proton Scribe's no-logs servers if it suits them. The most likely use-case for that would be on devices that aren't able to run AI-powered workloads properly.

As for the AI model being used, we know that Proton Scribe uses a few open-source models underneath, with no involvement of third-party organizations like OpenAI.

During the launch, Proton founder Andy Yen added that:

We realised that irrespective of 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 that often have appalling privacy practices, it would be better to instead build privacy-first AI tools directly into Proton Mail.

If you are interested in learning more, then head to the official announcement blog.

Get Proton Scribe

Proton Scribe has been made available for users of the Proton Mail business plans at an additional cost of $2.99 per user/month, with the option to opt for a 14-day free trial.

Subscribers of Proton Visionary and Lifetime will get access to it for free.

Proton Mail (Business)

If you want to get started with Proton Mail, and not opting for business plans, you can use our partner link to get discounts and sign up for a personal plan:

Currently, Proton Scribe is being rolled out for the web and desktop clients of Proton Mail, and users of non-business plans will have to wait it out, before this AI-powered feature is made available to them; Perhaps as part of an existing plan? 🤔

If you are interested in the source code of it, then I suggest you head to Proton Mail's GitHub page.

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