DuckDuckGo users will be able to control how often (if at all) they see AI-assisted answers while using the search platform.
AI-assisted answers anonymously summarises information from the web, keeping user information safe
Photo Credit: DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused web browser, announced the rollout of AI-assisted answers on its search engine last week. The feature was so far available in beta, but now the company is releasing it to all users. With this, users will be able to see an artificial intelligence (AI) generated summary of their searched query, similar to Google's AI Overviews feature. However, unlike Google Search, DuckDuckGo is letting users control the frequency of these answers, and they can choose to turn them off entirely as well.
In a blog post, DuckDuckGo CEO and Founder Gabriel Weinberg announced the new AI features. The most notable is the introduction of AI-assisted answers, which shows a snapshot of information about the user's searched query. The company says this will enable users to find information at a glance.
However, many users do not prefer AI-generated summaries, and instead enjoy the traditional search experience. Google's lack of option in letting users choose whether they'd like to see AI Overviews has led to some exploring unique ways to turn them off.
DuckDuckGo has instead taken a different approach and has given the control to the user. By going to the search settings and navigating to AI Features, users can choose how frequently they are shown these summaries. There are four options — Never, On-Demand, Sometimes, and Often. While Never turns the feature off, On-Demand lets users have granular control over these summaries and they can generate AI-assisted answers by tapping a button on the search result page.
In the post, Weinberg highlighted that selecting Often will show AI-assisted answers for about 20 percent of the queries. These AI-generated summaries are shared to AI models anonymously, and the company claims that a user's “personal information is never exposed to third parties.”
On the reliability of the summaries, the company highlights that the information is sourced via real-time web crawling. However, since DuckDuckGo cannot control the authenticity, the AI-assisted answers show the source from where the information was picked to let users make a judgement call.
DuckDuckGo Duck ai
Photo Credit: DuckDuckGo
Apart from this, Duck.ai (formerly known as AI Chat) is also getting a couple of upgrades. DuckDuckGo has added new AI models including OpenAI's GPT-4o mini and o3-mini, and Meta Llama 3.3. Additionally, a “Recent Chats” feature has also been added that stores conversations with AI locally on the users' device. DuckDuckGo claimed that these conversations are not stored on its servers or the AI provider's servers.
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