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Express AI, launched on March 31, 2026, is ExpressVPN's attempt to answer a question many AI users haven't thought to ask: who can read your chats? The platform offers access to five AI models inside a confidential computing environment, where prompts and outputs are cryptographically isolated from everyone, including ExpressVPN itself. That's a bold claim in a category where privacy policies tend to be long on language and short on enforcement.

The platform comes bundled with ExpressVPN's Pro plan at no additional cost, positioning it alongside the company's password manager, secure mail, and identity protection tools. I've been covering AI platforms and business software for TechRadar Pro for years, including our 2026 buying guide for vibe coders and our guides on OpenClaw and Moltbook.

For this review, I spent time using Express AI across a range of everyday tasks: drafting, summarising documents, and reasoning through technical problems, to see how it holds up against better-known AI platforms.

Express AI is a multi-model AI chat platform built by ExpressVPN and accessible at app.expressai.com. At launch, it offers access to five general-purpose AI models, each selected for a different task type. What separates it from platforms like ChatGPT or Claude isn't the model lineup, but the underlying architecture: every interaction runs inside a confidential computing environment where encryption keys are generated inside the hardware itself, mathematically isolating conversations from cloud providers, model operators, and ExpressVPN.

The platform targets professionals and individuals who routinely share sensitive information in their AI chats, such as financial questions, work documents, and personal communications, and want guarantees that their data won't be retained or used to train future models. It's particularly well-suited to users already in the ExpressVPN ecosystem, since access is tied to the Pro subscription.

Privacy claims in the AI space are easy to make and hard to verify, which is why ExpressVPN commissioned an independent audit from Cure53, a German cybersecurity firm known for rigorous assessments. The pre-launch review, conducted in February and March 2026, covered penetration testing, source code inspection, and analysis of the platform's cryptography and key management. Cure53 confirmed that Express AI processes user interactions within confidential computing enclaves and found no unresolved vulnerabilities at launch.

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Five open-weight models: GPT OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B, Qwen2.5-VL 32B, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B, and Nemotron 12B

Best for

Privacy-conscious professionals, sensitive document analysis, multi-model comparison

Distinguishing functions

Confidential computing, Ghost Mode, encrypted vault, side-by-side model comparison, zero data retention

UI features

Clean chat interface with per-model selection, credit tracker, file upload support

Subscription costs

Included with ExpressVPN Pro; no standalone free plan

API pricing

No public API access available at launch

• You share sensitive information with AI tools. If your prompts routinely include personal, financial, or professional details, Express AI's zero-access architecture offers a layer of protection that mainstream platforms don't.
• You want multiple models without multiple subscriptions. The platform bundles five models covering everyday writing, document analysis, and coding in one interface, which reduces the cost and friction of juggling several accounts.

• You're not already an ExpressVPN subscriber. Access requires a Pro plan, so you'd be paying for a full VPN suite alongside the AI platform. That's poor value if you only want an AI chatbot.
• You need API access or developer-level control. Express AI has no public API at launch, which makes it a non-starter for developers building on top of AI models.

The interface is spare and deliberately uncomplicated. You select a model, type your prompt, and get a response. There's no sidebar full of tools or settings buried three menus deep. I found the model-switching to be the most useful feature in practice: running the same prompt through DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B for a reasoning-heavy task and then Qwen2.5-VL 32B for document analysis took seconds rather than the tab-switching juggle that typically comes with using multiple platforms.

Ghost Mode worked as described: conversations disappeared after the session ended with no residual trace in the history panel. The encrypted vault stores past conversations behind a user-set password, which means chat history isn't accessible server-side, though a forgotten password loses the history permanently. That's a reasonable trade-off for the privacy guarantee, but it's something to keep in mind for anyone who relies on conversation history for workflow continuity.

One honest caveat: I couldn't independently verify the confidential computing claims beyond what Cure53 has stated in its public report. I'm taking the audit at face value, just as most users will. The 500 daily credits at one credit per prompt felt adequate for my testing but could frustrate users running long, iterative research sessions.

Express AI launches with five open-weight models rather than building proprietary ones from scratch. GPT OSS 120B handles everyday writing and reasoning; DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B is the pick for multi-step logic and research analysis; Qwen2.5-VL 32B reads and extracts data from images and documents; Qwen3.5 35B-A3B targets coding and complex prompts; and Nemotron 12B from NVIDIA handles technical and math-heavy workloads. In practice, having these in one interface means you can match the model to the task without maintaining separate accounts or API keys.

The side-by-side comparison tool is a standout. You can run the same prompt across multiple models simultaneously to compare outputs, which is especially useful when deciding which model to lean on for a recurring task type. Few standalone AI platforms offer this natively.

Ghost Mode and the encrypted vault address the two main categories of privacy risk. Ghost Mode auto-deletes conversations after each session, leaving no stored record at all. The vault stores history under user-controlled encryption: only the password set by the user can decrypt it, and neither ExpressVPN nor the model providers can access it. These aren't marketing claims; Cure53's February and March 2026 audit verified both mechanisms before launch.

File uploads are capped at 50 MB per file. The 2 GB of secure storage included with the Pro plan is sufficient for most document analysis tasks. I uploaded PDFs and images without friction, and Qwen2.5-VL 32B handled the analysis accurately in my testing. There's also a transparent credit tracker, which shows remaining daily usage clearly rather than burying it in account settings.

What's missing, at least at launch, is agentic capability. Express AI doesn't support tool use, web browsing, or multi-step autonomous tasks. It's a chat interface, and a deliberate one. For users who want AI agents to run workflows or integrate with external services, they'll need to look elsewhere. The no-API position also limits Express AI's appeal to developers, which may narrow the platform's audience more than ExpressVPN intends.

The interface prioritises simplicity, which suits the platform's core audience. New users can start a conversation in under a minute. There's no onboarding tutorial or feature demo, but the layout is intuitive enough that most users won't need one. The Ghost Mode toggle and model selector are front and centre, so the two features that define the platform don't require hunting through menus.

In terms of design, it reads closer to a focused productivity tool than a full AI platform. That restraint works in its favour for privacy-conscious users who don't want complexity, but it may feel bare to anyone coming from ChatGPT or Claude's more feature-dense interfaces. ExpressVPN has described Express AI as part of a broader privacy ecosystem, suggesting the product will expand, but the launch version makes no concessions to power users hoping for immediate depth.

Express AI inherits ExpressVPN's customer support infrastructure, which includes 24/7 live chat via the main ExpressVPN site. Response times in my experience have been fast, typically under two minutes for live chat. Support agents are familiar with the VPN suite but may have limited depth on Express AI-specific technical queries, given how recently the platform launched.

The support documentation for Express AI is currently thin. The knowledge base covers setup and billing questions, but more detailed guidance on model selection, credit usage, and the encrypted vault is sparse. Given that this is a new product, that's understandable, but users who run into edge cases may find the documentation less helpful than they'd expect.

• Included with ExpressVPN Pro. Express AI is available at no additional cost to Pro subscribers, which makes it the most accessible pricing model for existing users.
• Pro plan starts at $7.49/month on a 2-year commitment, rising to $8.99/month on a 1-year plan and $19.99/month month-to-month.
• No standalone or free tier. There is no way to access Express AI without an active ExpressVPN Pro subscription.

The pricing is simple once you accept that Express AI is a bundled benefit rather than a standalone product. Pro subscribers get 500 daily credits, 2 GB of encrypted storage, and access to all five models alongside ExpressVPN's other features. For users who already pay for a Pro plan, Express AI costs nothing extra.

For users who don't need a VPN, the value proposition is murkier. The Pro plan at $19.99/month is competitive with some standalone AI subscriptions — ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month, for example — but you're paying for a VPN suite first and an AI platform second. ExpressVPN hasn't announced a standalone plan for Express AI, so that decision point will remain for the foreseeable future.

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): The most widely used AI platform, with broader model access, API support, and agentic capabilities, but no confidential computing or zero-access architecture.
• Claude (Anthropic): A strong alternative for writing and reasoning tasks, with competitive privacy policies, though prompts may be reviewed for safety and model improvement purposes.
• Lumo (Proton): A privacy-oriented alternative from the makers of ProtonMail, worth watching as it develops its AI toolset for privacy-focused users.

• Used Express AI for drafting, summarising, and answering research questions across multiple sessions to assess model quality and response consistency.
• Uploaded PDFs and images to test the Qwen2.5-VL 32B model's ability to extract data and answer questions about uploaded content.
• Tested Ghost Mode, the encrypted vault setup, and credit tracking to confirm they behaved as described in the official documentation and Cure53 audit summary.

For this review, I used Express AI as a day-to-day tool across a three-day period, testing each of the five models for their stated use cases and comparing the experience against mainstream AI platforms I use regularly. I reviewed ExpressVPN's official product documentation, the public summary of the Cure53 audit, and third-party coverage from the March 2026 launch to verify the platform's privacy claims and pricing.

“Don’t open suspicious emails.”

This used to be the baseline mantra with cybersecurity training. Spotting a counterfeit data request was once simple: poor spelling, questionable email addresses, or a direct request for cash accompanied by an incredible story of a prince or ageing millionaire. But those days are over.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) makes prepping sophisticated attack flows (which would have taken months to code) available with just a few keystrokes: as a result, spoofing or phishing emails today are often compelling, topical and personalized, making them hard to spot.

With widely available phishing kits (like Evilginx), threat actors can create fake login pages or even CAPTCHA pages with a planted JavaScript injection attack with ease. In other words, there are now even more intelligent ways for threat actors to penetrate a system and steal data quickly, all with the help of AI.

Many AI-powered attacks aim to trick people into revealing sensitive information. The top three types of AI attacks that business leaders in the UK are concerned about are AI-generated phishing, business email compromise, and malicious AI agents. Of these, AI-generated phishing is one of the most concerning, and with good reason.

There are multiple types of phishing, including deepfake video calls and vishing (voice phishing), a tactic that uses phone calls or other voice messages to impersonate a person or organization.

In recent years, there have been high-profile successful deepfake attacks like the $25 million heist on the engineering firm, Arup, where an employee was tricked into giving away millions of dollars via a fake internal meeting that seemed real.

If a business’s infrastructure simply relies on an employee’s ability to spot a fake without proper training, this opens it to the inevitable reputational damage and financial loss resulting from an attack.

Cybersecurity skill gaps need to be addressed: Security teams need to train their workforce on why phishing continues to be a serious threat and how AI is being used by threat actors to enhance those attacks, because even with AI-driven defenses, employees who are poorly or inconsistently trained could unwittingly lead to devastating outcomes.

Despite the malicious use of AI, AI is an excellent ally in combating cyber-attacks. Next-gen data security and cybersecurity solutions use AI to process large amounts of logging and monitoring data to find anomalies and outliers, block threats, and make recommendations or adjustments to security controls.

AI is also very good at spotting behavioral indicators of compromise (IoC) and correlating seemingly unrelated security activities, making it a must-have capability in the AI era.

The message has never been clearer: today, businesses need to embrace product offerings that apply AI in cybersecurity because the attackers already have.

Additionally, to achieve strong cyber resilience, cyber awareness must be a top priority. AI-powered training solutions can further enhance this by automating, adapting and personalizing the experience for employees, based on their role and their response to ongoing phishing simulations, making it more engaging, efficient and effective.

The double-edged sword of AI presents a conundrum for professionals across sectors. AI is a good investment for security, but a majority of businesses are not deploying it effectively enough yet, which allows attackers to gain an advantage.

AI is here to stay and will continue to impact cybersecurity for the foreseeable future. As organizations embrace the benefits of AI in their day-to-day operations, it becomes even more imperative for them to safeguard against malicious exploits to ensure the integrity and reliability of their business systems in an increasingly interconnected world.

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Evil Dead Burn is the sixth installment in the horror franchise, and unfortunately, I found the new movie to be the weakest one of the bunch. Considering the 2013 reboot wasn't great, I think that speaks to how much I'm disappointed in the most recent entry.

On the surface, Evil Dead Burn looks promising. It was directed by Sébastien Vaniček, who is most well known for his movie Infested. I liked that one a lot (mostly because spiders terrify me), and so I was excited for his take on the iconic Evil Dead series.

Vaniček's Evil Dead Burn follows a woman named Alice (Souheila Yacoub) who is grieving over the loss of her husband, William (George Pullar), as she seeks solace with her in-laws. One member of her late husband's family is played by Hunter Doohan, who stars in Netflix's Wednesday, and I must admit it was cool getting to see him in a horror movie.

One by one, the family transforms into Deadites, the malevolent, parasitic demonic spirits we've come to fear throughout the Evil Dead franchise. But it goes in a direction I really wasn't expecting.

I do want to preface my mostly negative review by pointing out that there are some good things about this movie. Horror fans with a thirst for gory set pieces will no doubt have fun, as there are indeed some great moments. Some stand-out scenes involve a dishwasher and a car door, and just thinking about them makes me cringe uncomfortably.

Unfortunately, there's not much else to it beyond some standout gory moments that will stick with you. It's not a patch on the Bruce Campbell-led movies we know and love, and pales in comparison to its predecessor, Evil Dead Rise.

Evil Dead Burn centers around a family terrorized by Deadites, but there's a lot of confusion here surrounding how people become possessed. Sometimes you need a transfer of bodily fluids, and sometimes possession takes longer than others. The inconsistency throughout the movies might frustrate fans, as sometimes, a simpler answer is best.

When the family members are possessed, horrible things happen. It is a very unforgiving movie because the Deadites are particularly cruel here, often to an extreme degree. I should warn people now that yes, there is violence towards animals if that bothers you, and the movie feels nastier than its predecessors as a result.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, as we expect to watch a horror movie to feel uncomfortable and scared. But Evil Dead Burn really struggles to balance these shocking, brutal moments with an actual story, to the point where it feels like you're just watching a montage of gory scenes.

There's also a frustrating overreliance on jump scares here, which previous Evil Dead movies steered away from. There's nothing wrong with a good scare, and horror fans love them, but when you have excessive ones you saw coming a mile away, it becomes tedious.

Sam Raimi wove a really cool horror story when he first created The Evil Dead, but this sequel adds very little to the lore. It's basically a long movie where family members brutally attack and maim each other, and by the credits, I was left with more questions than answers.

Even the post-credits scene isn't really worth waiting for, and since there was a three-year gap between Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn, it's a shame that's all we got.

Ultimately, Evil Dead Burn is another divisive horror movie that will work for some and not others. It really depends on what you want from a horror movie, and if you're content with some over-the-top gore and repeated easy-to-spot scares, then you'll definitely have fun.

If you want more lore with your gore, then you might want to revisit the previous movies instead. Evil Dead Burn doesn't add much to a long-running franchise, and I found it to be a disappointment.