DuckDuckGo Dabbles With AI Search

Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has followed Microsoft and Google to become the latest veteran search player to dip its beak in the generative AI trend -- announcing the launch today in beta of an AI-powered summarization feature, called DuckAssist, which can directly answer straightforward search queries for users. From a report: DDG says it's drawing on natural language technology from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, an AI startup founded by ex-OpenAI employees, to power the natural language summarization capability, combined with its own active indexing of Wikipedia and other reference sites it's using to source answers (the encyclopedia Britannia is another source it mentions).

Founder Gabe Weinberg tells TechCrunch the sources it's using for DuckAssist are -- currently -- "99%+ Wikipedia." But he notes the company is "experimenting with how incorporating other sources could work, and when to use them" -- which suggests it may seek to adapt sourcing to the context of the query (so, for example, a topical news-related search query might be better responded to by DuckAssist sourcing information from trusted news media). So it remains to be seen how DDG will evolve the feature -- and whether it might, for example, seek to ink partnerships with reference sites. At launch, DuckAssist is only available via DDG's apps and browser extensions -- but the company says it plans to roll it out to all search users in the coming weeks. The beta feature is free to use and does not require the user to be logged in to access it. It's only available in English for now. Per Weinberg, the AI models DDG is ("currently") using to power the natural language summarization are: The Davinci model from OpenAI and the Claude model from Anthropic. He also notes DDG is "experimenting" with the new Turbo model OpenAI recently announced.

I applaud their mission

[jenningsthecat]

Unfortunately, I can't applaud their performance. I really do try to use DDG; but as bad as Google has gotten, at least half of the time I end up using it after DDG fails me. Now that they've jumped even harder on the "ask us a question" bandwagon, I suspect I'll end up not using DDG at all.

It's as though search-engine providers have forgotten that people often use search engines for researching things instead of just asking questions. When I search I'm usually looking for actual specific data. Playing the 20-questions whack-a-mole game to try to find that data is getting really tiresome. They seem to assume I know nothing and need everything algo-splained, when I usually know something and am looking to add to the knowledge rather than being given a primary-level education I don't need.

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[jetkust]

Google seems only good for searching things local to your area. Researching things has become a pretty painful experience, constantly clicking on websites barely relevant to the search or not relevant at all. And a good deal of the time the websites are borderline functionally unusable. Maybe it's not all google's fault. But it's pretty clear that google at this point is purposefully inefficient and likely optimized for profit.

I've been using DDG more and more and google less and less. I somewhat di

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[lexman098]

ChatGPT has proven the format can be pretty effective researching things

No, it's proven the format shouldn't be trusted for research since it's often completely wrong with no way of knowing which part is wrong. If you research yourself you can look at multiple sources very easily and end up verifying information as part of the normal process of gathering a lot of it.

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[jetkust]

None of that is mutually exclusive to using ChatGPT.

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[ctrlshift]

I have had the opposite experience using DDG. I switched maybe...four or five years ago and I pretty much never have to check Google to find what I'm looking for. The most difficulty I had using it was simply adjusting to the format of the search results. I didn't realize how 10+ years of looking at one search engine solidifies your eyeballs' ability to scan and parse a list. That said, I agree that natural language searching probably isn't all that useful for a lot of us; it's geared towards lay people

DuckDuckGo is Bing

[aldousd666]

DuckDuckGo is bing without any extras. If they say they're for privacy and all that, I don't believe it. They may have started that way, but what they are doing now is nothing like that. I wouldn't touch DDG with a ten foot pole now, because they've totally misrepresented themselves this whole time. "Tired of what the big search engines do with your data? No problem, use our engine, which... actually just passes your query to a big search engine that keeps and sells your data still." No thanks. If they'd just kept quiet about the whole privacy thing....

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[Iamthecheese]

TOR browser provides excellent privacy, as long as you're not doing seriously evil shit that will get you hunted down.

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[Visarga]

Are you saying they send user identities to Bing together with user queries? If not, then Bing has a log of queries without relation to you.

Re:DuckDuckGo is Bing

[newbie_fantod]

which... actually just passes your query to a big search engine that keeps and sells your data still.

Yes it does, but the difference is that all of that data is attributed to one single user - DuckDuckGo, not to you. Think of it as a search proxy.

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[x_t0ken_407]

I struggle to imagine how GP came to the conclusion that DDG was just passing your data wholesale to Bing lol

So, Random Wild Errors Coming

[todmanic]

Well that's too bad, DDG is the search I use, on Brave browser. Guess that means it soon start throwing wild random errors of fact at me and accuse me of gaslighting it. I never use goog search, it always always assumes I want a good price on buying whatever word I type in. Turns out I can get a fine bargain on elliptical galaxies only 2,500 light years away, right next door. I'm gassing up the car.

Aaaaannd....

[jddj]

we get even FURTHER from a search that obeys your queries.

The future kinda sucks.

Not great at first glance

[Tx]

I probably need to play with it a lot more, but just trying it out quickly, I'm not that impressed on first go. I asked "What was the worst pandemic", and clicked the DuckAssist button that popped up. It replied "The worst pandemic in recent history is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 670 million people worldwide", with a link to the "Pandemic" Wikipedia article. This didn't really answer my question correctly, since I didn't qualify my question with "recent history". It also chose to ref