Private AI
AI is almost a taboo subject in the field of privacy, as the very development of AI tools directly involves what many consider mass, global violations of both copyright and privacy. Not to mention that like everything Big Tech does, for all the uses AI has, in its current state much of the hype about it steps from PR and marketing people basically talking shit to increase stock prices, hoping for a quick payout.
Regardless, AI yet remains a promising new technology with a lot of real use cases. And a LOT of pitfalls when misused. But it is possible to make good, practical use of AI, privately. You just need to know how.
What not to do:
First, how not to use AI, if you value privacy. In short, don’t just go and sign up for ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Perplexity or any of the others. Trusting your private data to them is like trusting your healthcare to Purdue Pharma (the killers of almost half a million people, if you are unfamiliar).
But AI doesn’t have to be run on some cloud service you have no control over and actively steal all your data for profit, nor do you need to link all your usage to your credit card and ID. There are better ways. I will cover the main options below, along with their benefits and disadvantages.
Local AI:
The best guarantee of absolute privacy when using AI, is to host it yourself, on your own devices, using open source software, so it is verifiable the software does what it claims to do and doesn’t spy on you.
The massive benefit to this, is you have as close to total privacy as possible in the modern world (the potential for malware and hacking being the only real threat).
The massive downside to this, is that on most consumer hardware, you can only readily use some of the more basic AI tools. If these tools are enough for your use case, this is easily the best choice. And indeed if you are willing to spend good money on hardware, you can start to use even some higher end AI tools at home. But realistically don’t expect full ChatGPT/Grok level quality on a home system at any price, as those simply aren’t available to use locally.
Anonymous AI Aggregators (Nano-GPT):
The only current way to gain access to all the top of the line AI tools privately, is with a private AI aggregator. Basically a service that acts as an intermediary between you and various AI providers (ChatGPT, Grok, etc.) and thus hiding the source of all your AI queries, similar to how a VPN covers your IP address when browsing.
The downside to this is that the actual contents of your data all get sent to traditional AI providers, which means if your actual content is sensitive, this is NOT a viable option. But if your only interest is not having your content directly tied to you personally, it is easily the best solution. You get all the best AI tools, anonymized.
Because you don’t need an account and can pay for services via crypto, including the private Monero currency, and access their site via VPN for added privacy, it is essentially impossible for anyone to tie your usage to you personally (unless you submit such information yourself).
I personally recommend this for most use cases and I would advise people in oppressive regimes that ban free speech, such as the UK, Australia, Germany and others to ONLY access popular AI services in this manner, lest you be jailed for saying or asking something mean.
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Renting AI Compute:
There are many companies offering powerful hardware to run AI workloads for “rent”. You can rent out hardware to run any AI model publicly available and only pay for your actual use time. This gives you a lot of control over your AI infrastructure and is ideal for planning a potential future local deployment.
Privacy is much better than directly using public AI services (ChatGPT, Openrouter and so on), because to steal your data the provider would have to actively and likely illegally go out of their way to extract data from your deployment. It’s no guarantee of privacy, but it’s better than a guarantee of having no privacy.
Proton Lumo:
I almost didn’t include this, as it is a brand new service, offering very basic AI functionality. But it is from a reputable privacy friendly company that is at least likely better than competitors. Most people with decent hardware can probably run AI locally of similar quality, but if you’re running off a device with an old or weak GPU and just want to try out some AI with reasonable privacy, it’s at least worth a look.
TLDR:
Don’t let fear of AI and big tech stealing all your data dissuade you from taking advantage of the latest technology. At Digital Archon, we can help you use AI in your business or personally in a way that will provide you the best tools available, while maintaining your privacy.
Whether you need help configuring local AI for your business, particularly in areas such as healthcare where privacy is a legal must; or if you want help getting setup to use AI services safely in oppressive nations, we can help you take back control of your data!