How we use AI

In short

• The free private AI runs on your own computer. What you tell it stays there.
• Paid AIs run only if you connect your own account. What you send them goes to that company, not to us.
• We never train AI on your data. We don't build AI models, and we don't have your data to train on.
• The staff are characters, not people. Loxley and the rest were created to guide you. Nick is the only real person.
• AI can be wrong, and you decide. Nothing is sent, posted or bought for you without your Yes.

The AIs, one by one

The free private AI

It runs on your Mac through the free Ollama app, with an open model whose name is shown on its seat (for example, Gemma 3). Once it's set up, it works without the internet. What you send it doesn't leave your computer. Ollama and the model's maker have their own terms.

The AIs you connect

Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), Grok (xAI), Perplexity and OpenRouter work only if you add your own account key. When you ask one of them something, your question and the notes you include go straight from your computer to that company, and that company's terms and privacy policy apply. You pay them directly, and we earn nothing from it. Each company has its own rules about whether it keeps or learns from what you send, so check your settings with each one.

On a Mac, the keys you connect are kept in your Mac's Keychain and used only by the Tower's helper on your computer. We never see them, and on a setup call we never ask for them.

Voice recordings

If you turn it on, recordings you drop in your phone folder are written out on your own computer with the free Whisper model. Nothing is uploaded.

The staff and Loxley

The staff are characters we created to guide you. By default they answer from written-out guidance, with no AI at all. You can give any of them an AI to think with: the free one or a paid one you connected. Then that AI writes their answers, and the staff member's settings show which one it is. They are never real people.

Desk jobs (Your AI Empire and Empire Command)

When you give your board a standing order, like a morning news briefing, the AI you picked runs it on your schedule. Some (Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity) can search the internet to do it; the free AI and ChatGPT don't, and the form says so. Reports land on your desk. Nothing is posted or sent for you.

What reaches us

Nothing from the app. The app has no analytics and doesn't report to us. The only things that reach us are your free-map sign-up and what you buy, as our Privacy page explains. We don't run those through any AI.

We never train AI on your data

We don't train, tune or build AI models with your files, your chats or your sign-up details. If we ever wanted to use something you gave us to improve an AI, we would ask you first, as a separate Yes, and it would never apply to anything you had already given us.

What AI can and can't do

AI helps you organize, draft and decide. It can also be wrong, out of date or simply made up, and say so with confidence. Check anything that matters, and get a professional for legal, money, health and other big decisions. We won't claim the Tower saves you a number of hours or dollars unless we can show where the number comes from. See Terms section 10 and Results and testimonials.

How we use AI in our own work

We use AI tools, including Claude, to help write and build this website, our emails and the app. A person reviews it before it goes out. Some pictures on this site, like the staff and the Tower, were made with AI image tools. Nick's portrait was made from a real photo of him.

Questions

Email support@stratostower.com. If something here changes, we'll update this page and its date first.