Artificial intelligence is, in WIRED's telling, "another surveillance technology"—one made possible by surveillance capitalism and one that returns the favor by making surveillance more powerful. Andy Yen, founder and CEO of Proton, one of the world's most popular encryption-focused tech companies, argues that AI and privacy will have to coexist, and Proton is now shipping a product that tests that claim. In an interview with WIRED's Andy Greenberg, published on August 18, 2026, Yen detailed why he considers corporate surveillance a bigger threat than government spying—and why Proton launched an AI chatbot called Lumo anyway.
From CERN's particle accelerator to Proton's encrypted suite
Yen is not "a tech person or even an entrepreneur by training," he told WIRED. He worked at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the largest particle accelerator in the world. Proton was created during one of the accelerator's upgrade cycles, in the summer after Edward Snowden's 2013 disclosures about government surveillance, when the physicists had free time. Sitting in the CERN cafeteria, Yen and his colleagues reached a conclusion that defined the company's mission:
"The realization we had sitting in that cafeteria was, yeah, government surveillance is a problem, but the much bigger problem is corporate surveillance." — Andy Yen, in WIRED's interview
Yen told WIRED that compared with what Meta or Google know about a person, what the NSA knows "is really quite tiny." He argued that the US government "can just directly subpoena Google, Facebook, and these giant companies" on a routine basis, making the internet's default business model the highest-surveillance environment in human history.
The Lumo test: Can an AI chatbot be privacy-preserving?
Proton's products are end-to-end encrypted versions of every Google service from Gmail to Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar, and Meet, according to WIRED. In late June, Proton released the latest version of Lumo, its own AI chatbot, according to WIRED. WIRED described the move as Proton integrating AI ever more deeply into its suite of tools "in a way that's more voluntary and preserves users' privacy far more than the typical tech giant." Yen said he is not anti-AI, any more than he is anti-internet.
| WIRED interview: Key facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Proton's positioning | End-to-end encrypted versions of Google services: Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Meet |
| AI release | Latest version of the Lumo AI chatbot, released in late June |
| Founder background | Particle physicist who worked on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN |
| Origin moment | Summer after Edward Snowden's 2013 leaks, during an LHC upgrade cycle |
| User trend | New users arriving "in droves" as tech giants push AI into products |
The business model Proton is built against
WIRED frames the standoff in stark terms: "Surveillance capitalism made AI possible, and AI returns the favor by making surveillance more powerful and the businesses that run on it more data-rich and profitable than ever." Proton's answer, according to the interview, is a company "not solely designed to maximize profit"—a structure Yen discussed with Greenberg, though the article does not detail the corporate structure. The default internet business model, Yen said, records, shares, monetizes, and abuses everything a user does. He told WIRED that the push to integrate AI into every consumer tech product, "whether people want it or not," is driving new users in droves to Proton's products.
For technology decision-makers, Proton's Lumo release offers a live example of an AI feature built on a different data-governance assumption: user consent and encryption rather than data monetization. The WIRED interview does not discuss logistics, supply chain, or trade systems, but the architectural question it poses applies to any AI procurement: whether a model's value can be delivered without turning user data into the product. On that question, Yen's answer to WIRED is unambiguous—AI and privacy will have to coexist, and Proton intends to build the version that does.
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