DuckDuckGo introduces AI generated answers to its products

DuckDuckGo's turn to integrate AI technology into its search engine and web browser, following in the footsteps of Microsoft, Opera and Google. The company has officially announced that it has started testing for its DuckAssist tool that will pull information from Wikipedia to present it in a concise form as answers to users' queries.

DuckAssist has been launched in beta only through the company's mobile apps and browser extensions, and will be integrated into the web-based search engine for all users if they are satisfied with its testing.

The mode of operation is extremely simple. You type in your question and a DuckAssist box pops up informing you that it will look on Wikipedia to find relevant information related to your topic. If you click on the blue Ask button, you will immediately get a summary of the information DuckAssist found on Wikipedia. In case you have asked the same question before, DuckAssist will automatically show you the same answer without pressing the Ask button.

DuckAssist's philosophy may be similar to that of ChatGPT and Bard, but the company notes that users still enjoy the security and privacy benefits that DuckDuckGo offers. DuckAssist does not share any information with other databases and does not use users' questions to train its algorithm. It goes without saying that you don't need to perform a sign-in to use it and everything is done anonymously.