Venice.ai is founded by Erik Voorhees, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur best known for founding the exchange ShapeShift. He is the CEO, sole investor, and primary force behind the platform, which launched in 2024 with no external funding.

Venice.ai positions itself strongly in favor of freedom of speech and user privacy as core principles. It describes itself as offering "private, uncensored AI," emphasizing "unlimited creative freedom" without censorship.

On freedom of speech: Voorhees has explicitly criticized "paternalistic censorship" in mainstream AI platforms (e.g., restrictions on content like jokes or politically sensitive topics). Venice.ai does not censor AI outputs, provides access to uncensored open-source models (like Venice Uncensored), and includes features like "Free Speech Mode" that remove typical safeguards. Voorhees argues that thoughts developed with AI should not be regulated or censored, likening it to the separation of church and state: "The Separation of Mind and State." He views unconstrained speech as essential for progress and warns against government or corporate control over AI.

On privacy: The platform's architecture is designed around privacy minimization. Conversations are stored locally in the user's browser (encrypted and device-specific), not on servers. Prompts and responses are not logged, stored, or shared. Requests route through encrypted proxies to decentralized compute providers, ensuring Venice.ai has minimal access (e.g., only email/IP for accounts, no chat content). This contrasts sharply with major AI companies that retain and share user data. Voorhees states: "The only way to respect user privacy is to not violate it in the first place." Their privacy policy reinforces limited data collection, security measures, and no selling of personal information.

Overall, Venice.ai markets itself as a privacy-first, anti-censorship alternative to centralized AI tools, with a philosophy rooted in decentralization, open-source models, and individual sovereignty.