Also: Proton just launched a Google Workspace alternative - and it's fully encrypted

Earlier this month, I attended Semafor World Economy in DC, where 500 CEOs joined government leaders to discuss the state of global business, including AI's impact on security and privacy. Andy Yen, CEO of VPN and private digital service provider Proton, spoke on the topic; I sat down with Yen after his panel to discuss whether privacy can coexist with AI, what its future looks like, and why he thinks Proton is well-positioned to succeed.

AI and privacy trade-offs go hand in hand: the thinking goes that the more data AI tools have access to, the better they perform, whether for enterprise or individual use. That directly pits implementation and efficacy against risk tolerance. Still, popularity has skyrocketed over the last two years, especially for sensitive use cases such as healthcare.

Since Proton's founding in 2014, long before AI use exploded amongst everyday consumers, the company has offered users privacy-first alternatives to tools from the Big Tech likes of Google, Microsoft, and Meta. However, Yen doesn't think the rise of AI tools has popularized data privacy concerns amongst the public. In his view, the issue is a generational mismatch between privacy awareness and tech adoption.