DuckDuckGo is making significant advancements in integrating AI into its search engine. The privacy-focused company announced that its AI-powered search has moved out of beta, now generating answers from a broader range of web sources rather than just Wikipedia. Additionally, the company is launching an AI chatbot, which has also exited beta testing.
AI-Generated Search and Chatbot Features
In 2023, DuckDuckGo introduced DuckAssist, a search engine answer generator providing concise responses compared to Google’s AI Overviews. Users can control how often AI-generated answers appear or disable them entirely. Even with the “often” setting, AI responses currently show up in only 20% of searches, though DuckDuckGo plans to increase this frequency over time.
“We’d like to increase this number in the future. This is another important area where we work… We intend to remain conservative in this regard. We don’t want to put this out there if we think it’s wrong,” said Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo’s founder and CEO.
Some AI-generated responses now include a field for users to ask follow-up questions and start conversations with the Duck.ai chatbot. No account registration is required to use the bot, and users can switch between different AI models, including GPT-4o mini, o3-mini, Llama 3.3, Mistral Small 3, and Claude 3 Haiku. A key advantage is that interactions remain anonymous, as DuckDuckGo ensures user IP addresses are hidden. The company has partnered with AI bot developers to prevent user data from being used for model training, adds NIX Solutions.
Privacy and Future Enhancements
Duck.ai can store chat history, but all data remains on the user’s device rather than DuckDuckGo’s servers. In the coming weeks, Duck.ai will gain web search support, enhancing its ability to answer queries. The company is also working on voice support for Android and iOS, along with future capabilities for processing images.
While Duck.ai will remain free, access to advanced AI models will be available through a $10-per-month subscription. However, DuckDuckGo does not plan to release the chatbot as a standalone app, setting it apart from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. We’ll keep you updated on further developments as they roll out.