DuckDuckGo recently announced the launch of DuckAssist, a new AI-powered feature to add to its privacy-first search engine.
The feature is currently in beta and is available to users of DuckDuckGo's browser apps or extensions for free.
Is DuckAssist Another AI Chatbot?
Short answer: No.
DuckAssist will not function as another smart chatbot like Microsoft's Bing AI and ChatGPT, the search engine company clarifies.
CNET explains that it is an extension of the search engine's existing Instant Answers feature, which provides users with immediate answers to their lookups without requiring them to click links within the search results.
DuckDuckGo consults more than 100 different sources when providing user search results.
The purpose of DuckAssist is to assist in generating answers by searching through Wikipedia and, on occasion, Britannica in order to produce a response.
AI-Powered DuckAssist
In order to provide a more conversational response and provide a recap of its suggested answers, DuckAssist utilizes technology developed by OpenAI and Anthropic.
The feature provides a link to the source of its answer for those who want to do more research on the topic. However, DuckDuckGo notes that there is a possibility that DuckAssist will not always provide accurate responses to complex questions.
In a blog post, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg instructed users to ask questions clearly and directly and to devise them as questions for better results.
The DuckDuckGO CEO also suggested that including "wiki" in the search query would make DuckAssist more likely to appear in the search results.
Why Wikipedia?
The research community is aware that Wikipedia is not generally regarded as a reliable source for academic or research purposes.
Wikipedia is a user-generated encyclopedia, which implies that anyone, regardless of expertise or credentials, can contribute to and modify its content.
Furthermore, because Wikipedia is fast updated and developing, it may only sometimes reflect the most current or accurate information.
So, why is DuckDuckGo referencing Wikipedia? According to the search engine, Wikipedia is a public resource with a transparent editorial process that cites all sources used in an article, allowing users to trace where its information is coming from quickly. DuckDuckGo also intends to add more sources in the near future.
Integrating AI with Privacy
Concerning the company's bread and butter, privacy, the CEO explains that DuckAssist is anonymous, with no logging-in required. It is a fully integrated component of the free and anonymous DuckDuckGo Private Search.
This means DuckAssist will remain anonymous, not use queries to train its AI model, and will not share any personally identifiable information with third parties, ensuring its users' privacy.
Stable Diffusion, an AI art tool, recently stumbled on a lawsuit filed by stock image repository Getty Images for illicitly lifting millions of its images. Similar complaints have been lodged against OpenAI's ChatGPT.
For the time being, the feature is only available in English in DuckDuckGo's iOS, Android, and Mac apps, as well as browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
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