Moxie Marlinspike has a privacy-conscious alternative to ChatGPT

In an age where privacy concerns are paramount, the emergence of AI personal assistants can evoke significant unease. The challenge lies in utilizing these tools without inadvertently sharing personal data, which often remains with the companies behind the technology. With OpenAI already exploring monetization strategies through advertising, the specter of invasive data collection looms large over chatbot interactions. Enter Moxie Marlinspike, co-founder of Signal, who has unveiled a groundbreaking initiative designed with privacy at its core: Confer. Launched in December, this platform aims to replicate the user experience of popular chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude, while fundamentally protecting user data. Through open-source principles, akin to those that have established Signal's credibility, Confer ensures that conversations remain confidential and are never used for model training or ad targeting. Marlinspike emphasizes the importance of privacy in this context, stating, "This technology invites confession in a way that previous technologies do not. Chat interfaces like ChatGPT possess unparalleled insights into individuals' lives. When combined with advertising, it becomes akin to having your therapist incentivized to sell you something." To uphold these privacy standards, Confer employs a robust system of encryption and security measures. It utilizes the WebAuthn passkey system to secure messages exchanged with the AI, although the best performance is currently on mobile devices and Macs running Sequoia. However, users on Windows or Linux can still access the service with a password manager. On the backend, Confer processes all inference tasks within a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), equipped with remote attestation protocols to ensure system integrity. This sophisticated architecture, featuring a suite of open-weight foundation models, allows users to engage in sensitive discussions without the risk of data leakage. For those interested in using Confer, the free version permits up to 20 messages daily and five simultaneous chats. Users willing to invest $35 monthly can unlock unlimited messaging, enhanced models, and personalized experiences. Although this pricing is higher than ChatGPT’s Plus plan, Marlinspike's initiative underscores the notion that true privacy often comes at a premium.