DuckDuckGo launches anonymous AI chatbot

The privacy-conscience search engine said it will not use information users input for training LLMs or in any other way reveal who queried the chatbot.

DuckDuckGo has released an AI-powered portal to some of the most popular chabots and said it will not disclose or otherwise use what users type into the window to train up large language models — the basis for the generative AI (genA) tech.

“Chats are private, anonymized by us,” DuckDuckGo lead designer Nirzar Pangarkar wrote in a blog post. “Our mission is to show the world that protecting your privacy online can be easy.”

DuckDuckGo AI Chat currently allows users to access four popular AI chatbots: Open AI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku, Meta Llama 3, and Mistral’s Mixtral 8x7B) — the latter two, open-source models. The optional AI Chat feature is free to use within a daily limit, and can easily be switched off.

The feature can be accessed through duck.ai or duckduckgo.com/chat on a user’s search results page under the Chat tab, or via the !ai and !chat bang shortcuts. “They all take you to the same place,” Pangarkar said.

The company is also working to add access to more chat models and browser entry points. “We’re also exploring a paid plan for access to higher daily usage limits and more advanced models,” Pangarkar said.

In its blog, the company cited a recent report from the Pew Research Center showing adults in the US have a negative view of AI’s impact on privacy, even as they’re feeling more positive about the technology’s potential impact in other areas. About 80% of those familiar with AI indicated its use by companies will lead to personal information being used in ways they won’t be comfortable or for which it wasn’t originally intended to be used.

At the same time, Pew research also shows a steady uptick in the share of US adults using chatbots for work, education, and entertainment.

Credt: DuckDuckGo

Last year, the search engine released an AI-powered instant answer service called DuckAssist as part of a larger plan to integrate AI across its lineup. DuckAssist uses technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI as well as Anthropic to generate its own answers to certain types of question.

DuckAssist, however, isn’t a chatbot; the company insists it was an upgrade to its Instant Answers feature, which allows users to submit a query and get comprehensive answers without the need to click on a result.

“We believe people should be able to use the Internet and other digital tools without feeling like they need to sacrifice their privacy in the process,” Pangarkar said. “So, we meet people where they are, developing products that add a layer of privacy to the everyday things they do online. That’s been our approach across the board — first with search, then browsing, email, and now with generative AI via AI Chat.”

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