I canceled my ChatGPT subscription and switched to Lumo Plus subscription https://lumo.proton.me/about I also considered https://mistral.ai/products/le-chat

Both are based in Europe but Proton Lumo has the better privacy promises.

Would be interested in experiences of others with those alternatives for question/answering type research (not for coding for which there exist other, better alternatives like Gemini and Claude)

If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to

But tbh I just switched to Anthropic, they need all the support they can get. Claude is great for question/answer.

Tired using Babbel and Duolingo for language learning?

Today I discovered that you can now use Transformer LLMs such as Bing Chat as your personal language trainer