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DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo has unveiled its new AI Chat service on Thursday, allowing users to access popular chatbots like GPT-3.5 and Claude 3 Haiku anonymously without sharing their personal information. This also prevents the companies from training the AIs on their conversations. Essentially, AI Chat functions by interposing itself between the user and the model, like a high-tech version of a game of telephone.
From the AI Chat home screen, users can choose the chat model they desire – in addition to GPT-3.5 and Claude, Meta’s Llama 3 70B model and Mixtral 8x7B are also available. Then, they can engage in conversation with it just as they normally would. DuckDuckGo will act as an intermediary, substituting the user’s IP address with one of its own. “In this way, it appears that the requests are coming from us rather than you,” the company stated in a blog post.

Similar to the company’s anonymized search feature, all metadata from the user queries is stripped away. Therefore, even though DuckDuckGo warns that “the underlying model providers may temporarily store chats,” there is no way to personally identify users based on those chats. As The Verge notes, DuckDuckGo also has agreements in place with these AI companies, prohibiting them from using chat prompts and outputs to train their models and requiring them to delete any saved data within 30 days.

Data privacy is a growing concern within the AI community, especially as the number of individuals using AI both personally and for work continues to rise. A Pew Research study from October revealed that approximately eight out of ten “those familiar with AI believe that companies’ use of it will lead to people’s personal information being used in ways they are uncomfortable with.” While most chatbots already offer users the option to opt out of data collection, these choices are often buried within layers of menus, with the burden on the user to locate and select them.

AI Chat is accessible at both duck.ai and duckduckgo.com/chat. It is available for free within a daily limit, though the company is currently considering a more expansive paid option with higher usage limits and access to more advanced models. This new service follows the release of DuckDuckGo’s DuckAssist last year, which provides anonymized, AI-generated summaries of search results, similar to Google’s SGE.

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In the ever-evolving landscape of the AI world, DuckDuckGo’s focus on data privacy and its innovative AI Chat service stands out. As users become more aware of the importance of safeguarding their personal information, such initiatives are likely to gain traction. Whether it’s through anonymous access to chatbots or strict agreements with AI companies, DuckDuckGo is demonstrating its commitment to providing a secure and user-friendly experience in the realm of AI. The future of AI chat and data privacy will surely be an interesting space to watch, and DuckDuckGo is well-positioned to play a significant role.