DuckDuckGo, a search firm, launched a free and nameless AI Chat service in June 2024. AI Chat joins DuckAssist, which generates solutions based mostly on Wikipedia, as a option to discover matters with AI. AI Chat operates with the broadly used prompt-and-response course of popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
However DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat seeks to attenuate potential privateness issues by design. AI Chat provides nameless entry: No account, username, electronic mail deal with, or password wanted. DuckDuckGo guarantees that your prompts and knowledge won’t be used to coach any of the AI fashions. This implies you shouldn’t fear about content material out of your queries being embedded in a response delivered to different individuals.
As of September 2024, AI Chat enables you to select to talk with any of 4 chat fashions:
- GPT-4o mini from OpenAI.
- Claude 3 Haiku from Anthropic.
- Llama 3.1 70B, an open-source mannequin from Meta.
- Mixtral 8x7B, an open-source mannequin from Mistral AI, a French firm.
Chances are you’ll swap between fashions at any time, permitting you to check responses. Total, DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat gives a easy and free option to work together with 4 totally different massive language fashions anonymously.
Get began with DuckDuckGo AI Chat
Open a browser on a telephone, laptop, or pill related to the web, then:
- Go to duck.ai (or duckduckgo.com/chat) and choose the Get Began button.
- Subsequent, select a chat mannequin. Most individuals will wish to settle for the default possibility of GPT-4o mini from OpenAI. (Chances are you’ll swap and experiment with a unique mannequin any time.)
- Evaluate the privateness coverage and phrases of use, after which choose the I Agree button if the phrases are acceptable.
- You may then use AI Chat a lot as you’d some other AI chat system: Enter your immediate, await the response, after which proceed the chat as you would like.
Entry AI Chat with search or bangs
DuckDuckGo additionally enables you to swap to an AI Chat from a search. On a search outcomes web page, choose the Chat menu merchandise to transform your search question to an AI Chat immediate. The textual content of your search phrases can be positioned within the immediate field, so you’ll be able to modify it earlier than you ship the immediate to the system.
DuckDuckGo bang search shortcuts additionally supply !ai and !chat choices. Put both of those shortcuts initially of a DuckDuckGo search to convey the content material to the AI Chat system, fairly than an ordinary search. DuckDuckGo provides hundreds of bangs that assist you to ship your search not solely to DuckDuckGo providers but additionally to 3rd events, akin to Google (!g) or Wikipedia (!w).
AI Chat decisions: Copy, change, clear, or proceed
Choose the copy icon — to the top-right of every response — to repeat the textual content of a response to your machine’s clipboard. Then chances are you’ll paste the content material right into a be aware, doc, electronic mail, or textual content area. Since your prompts and responses aren’t related to an account, be certain that to repeat after which save elsewhere any response you wish to discuss with later. To the fitting of the copy icon is a redo button, a circle with an arrow, that you could be use to trigger the system to generate one other response to your immediate.
Not proud of the response you obtain from one mannequin? Swap to a unique AI Chat mannequin: Choose the Settings icon to the fitting of the chosen mannequin title, select your required mannequin, after which choose the “Start a new chat” button. Experiment with the out there fashions by prompting every with quite a lot of questions and duties. You’ll discover that not solely will the response particulars differ, but additionally that the format could differ as properly.
Finished with a thread or prepared to debate a unique subject? Choose the fireplace icon subsequent to the immediate field to clear the dialog. This erases all content material in your chat, so ensure you’ve copied (and saved) any generated content material from the chat beforehand.
Lastly, one main distinction between customary search and AI chat is which you can proceed the dialog and ask follow-up questions. For instance, a typical DuckDuckGo search will present a set of hyperlinks and probably some key info. In order for you a unique set of hyperlinks, you’d re-do your search. With AI Chat, you’ll be able to ask a complete sequence of follow-up inquiries to immediate the system to elaborate on a selected element or present further choices.
AI Chat limitations and alternate options
One notable limitation of AI Chat and all 4 out there fashions: They lack entry to present web content material. The responses are restricted to information out there as of their coaching date. So, once you wish to know details about upcoming or latest occasions, swap to an ordinary search.
Just a few net browser-accessible alternate options to AI Chat are techniques akin to:
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
- Microsoft’s Copilot.
- Google’s Gemini.
- Anthropic’s Claude.
- Meta’s Llama.
One other different is to obtain, set up, and configure a big language mannequin system, akin to Jan, Ollama, or Nomic’s GPT4All. Those that need entry to the highest-rated AI chat techniques will possible choose to pay — round $20 per 30 days in every case — for ChatGPT Plus, Gemini Superior, or Claude Professional.