ChatGPT made AI more mainstream than ever before, so much so that the use of artificial intelligence itself could spread to the most unexpected corners. In the face of large corporations, which are sometimes too monopolizing, it does not hurt to repeat their plans DuckDuckGo to implement answers generated by artificial intelligence in your search engine.

DuckDuckGo needs no introduction at this point as it is the most popular alternative search engine. Since its inception and in response to Google, privacy has been one of its core values, but recently it has been making various moves that have drawn criticism from both its users and the most ardent privacy advocates.

As we move deeper into implementing AI-generated responses, this feature will be introduced through a new tool called DuckAssistto which it will be dedicated automatically extract and summarize the answer extracted from Wikipedia articles. DuckAssist is currently only available in the beta branch of the browser and via mobile apps. Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, explained that the tool will be introduced in a web version if tests on the current environment go well.

When a user submits a query through DuckAssist, the tool warns that it can check whether Wikipedia has relevant information about it. After clicking the “Ask” button, the user gets an AI-generated answer that may not be accurate or answerable because, as Weinberg learned, the tool has a limit to the amount of information it can already summarize. Sometimes it’s Wikipedia itself that doesn’t have the right information. Of course, DuckAssist’s current approach reduces the chances that it will invent answers based on data not present on Wikipedia.

However, the use of artificial intelligence is not only a technological advance, but also a problem that raises ethical questions involving aspects such as privacy and even legal issues. DuckAssist is based on the language models of OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT, and Anthropic, the company behind Google. Here Gabriel Weinberg said DuckAssist will not share data with OpenAI or Anthropic, and that neither company will use anonymous questions to train their models.

DuckDuckGo using the Microsoft advertising network.

At this point, it’s worth remembering that DuckDuckGo relies on Microsoft’s ad network, and few, if any, have criticized it for this, as the search engine merely uses the Redmond giant’s ad network as a response mechanism to user-entered search terms without tracking or profiling to which it is not necessary to be registered on the site.

For now, DuckAssist does not aim to do anything complicated and would limit itself to offering rather simple answers to user questions if possible. It is also more likely to be triggered if the user adds the word “wiki” to the question and will automatically respond if the same question has already been submitted.