this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
6 points (87.5% liked)

Privacy

36021 readers
10 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
6
Proton just joined the AI clown car show (proton.me)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Fuck this shit, why does every fucking thing need an LLM?

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Am I out of touch?

a writing assistant was one of the most requested features in our recent survey

Apparently, I am. People actually want this

For Proton Mail, 59% of respondents want an easier way to send end-to-end encrypted emails to non-Proton users, while 29% want a writing assistant for proofreading, grammar, and composing emails.

Nothing I hate more than not giving a link to the repo

Scribe relies on open source code and models, and is itself open source and therefore available for independent security and privacy audits

Not on their support page specifically for it either

Had to got to Reddit and look at their comments to find out they're using Mistral

https://reddit.com/comments/1e68sof/comment/ldsbs24

We built Scribe in r/ProtonMail using the open-source model Mistral AI to empower anyone in need of email productivity to use a privacy-respecting alternative to r/ChatGPT or r/GeminiAI that:
 ❌ doesn't log or save prompts
 ⛔️ doesn't use your data for training
 🔎 open-source code that anyone can inspect
 🖥️ can be run locally, so your data never leaves your device
 
See the official announcement here: https://proton.me/blog/proton-scribe-writing-assistant

https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-7B-v0.1/discussions/8

Hello, thanks for your interest and kind words! Unfortunately we're unable to share details about the training and the datasets (extracted from the open Web) due to the highly competitive nature of the field. We appreciate your understanding!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Apparently, I am. People actually want this

Thank you for recognizing this. It gets quite frustrating in threads like these about new AI tools being deployed when people declare "nobody wants this!" And I try to explain that there are actually people that do want it. I find many AI tools to be quite handy.

I tend to get vigorously downvoted at that point, as if that would make the demand "go away" somehow. But sticking heads in sand doesn't accomplish anything except to make people increasingly out of touch.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I think that the point is it's entirely pointless building something like this into the email system. It should be a separate system that you can choose to use if you want it. Building it in just opens questions about exactly what they're doing with your data, despite their assurances.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For me the issue here is, why put so much time and energy into basically rebranding an LLM. I've seen LLMs running on RPi and android phones. Why not write a blog post showing how to run LLMs locally with existing tools for the best privacy instead and put more focus on their existing services. It just seems like they're jumping on the AI bandwagon and charging a premium for an already freely available LLM.

I see some benefits of AI like quality tts when using OSM and stt when transcribing/translating audio but other things like Googles AI answers and Microsofts Copilot leave me scratching my head wondering why consumer would want this

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Probably because at the end of the day:

  1. Most people don't have the tools or desire to figure out how to run an LLM locally.
  2. What if I run a local LLM on my PC and I leave my home? Do I now need to learn how to deploy a VPN at home so I always have access? I could do this, but I don't want to. Oh, you know a model that runs on Android? What if I have an iPhone?
  3. Proton is a for-profit business that surveyed their customers and got feedback that customers wanted a writing assistant. This one seems the most important.
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The thing that pisses me off the most is that they are disingenuous almost to the point of lying in interpreting that survey's results. They say that 75% of users are interested in GenAI, when actually what they asked is whether people have used any GenAI at all in the recent past. And that still doesn't mean they want GenAI in Proton. That's a pretty significant sleight of hand. The more relevant question would have been the first one on what service people want the most. In that case only 29% asked for a writing assistant, which is still not the same thing as a full LLM. The most likely answer to "how many Proton customers want an LLM in Proton Mail" seems to be "few".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

they have been going downhill for a while, proton has worked with the feds without resistance bbc article

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Just unsubscribed from them. I just use their mail.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We should be appreciating open-source AI. If you stay in one place, you can't grow.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Do we really need to grow our energy consumption as a society by such a disproportionate amount?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

At least this one is open-source and quite privacy respecting

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, and if that's the case, it seems like people just hate AI for the sake of it now.

LLM's are actually good at some things. Just not everything.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

LLM's are actually good at some things.

Just look at the most recent ecological reports about it and combine them with the AI industry growth plans. You'll get an interesting perspective.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

A lot of work has been going into making AIs more energy efficient, both in training and in inference stages. Electricity costs money, so obviously everyone's interested in more efficient AIs. That makes them more profitable.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Still you can't improve it that much. It's like blockchain. Computers always consume a lot of power, no matter how efficient they are.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Funny you should mention blockchains. Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain after Bitcoin, switched from proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake validation system two and a half years ago. That cut its energy use by 99.95%. The "blockchains are inherently a huge waste of energy" narrative is just firmly lodged in the popular view of them now, though, despite it being long proven false.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago

But that's really good! And also means that cloud based AI is even worse than blockchain in terms of environmental impact.