DuckDuckGo AI Chat promises anonymity in chatbots

This week, DuckDuckGo, known mainly for its privacy-focused search engine, announced a very interesting new tool for those who like to use chatbots: DuckDuckGo AI Chat.

The new service is free, opt-in and anonymous, and allows users to access four of the most popular generative AI chatbots available today. Models include OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku, Meta Llama 3, and Mistral’s Mixtral 8x7B. The company also plans to add other chatbot models in the future, further expanding options for users.

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Privacy concerns in focus

DuckDuckGo has always been focused on user privacy-focused products, and this new AI chat tool is no exception. In response to a Pew Research Center survey, which revealed that 81% of respondents fear that companies’ use of AI could compromise their personal information, DuckDuckGo has taken significant steps to try to somewhat mitigate these concerns. The survey also indicated that 80% of participants believe that AI’s role in data collection can lead to unintended consequences.

These fears are justified, as evidenced by a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research that highlighted the security and privacy risks associated with AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Without proper care, these chatbots can compromise sensitive data, including medical records.

Why make AI Chat? 💭 We believe you have the right to use the internet without sacrificing your privacy. So we meet people where they are, developing products that add a layer of privacy to the everyday things they do online.

— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) June 6, 2024

To address these challenges, DuckDuckGo implemented a system that anonymizes users’ interactions with AI chatbots. The company acts as an intermediary between the user and the AI ​​models, removing users’ IP addresses and replacing them with DuckDuckGo addresses. This ensures that queries are not personally identifiable, thus protecting users’ privacy.

DuckDuckGo AI Chat’s privacy policy states that the company will not store any information from chats, although model providers such as OpenAI may store it temporarily.

However, because the queries appear to originate from DuckDuckGo, this information cannot be associated with specific users. Additionally, DuckDuckGo ensures that all chats will be deleted within 30 days of their creation and will not be used to train or improve AI models.

“The providers of the underlying models may store chats temporarily, but there is no way for them to link the chats to you personally as all metadata is removed.”revealed DuckDuckGo.

Free use with limitations and future paid

Although the service is free, it has a daily usage limit. The company chose not to disclose this limit to avoid abuse by people with bad intentions. However, DuckDuckGo has assured that most users will not exceed this limit. If this occurs, the company encourages users to provide feedback via the Share Feedback button in AI Chat.

DuckDuckGo is also considering a paid version of AI Chat, which would increase the daily limit and offer access to more advanced and therefore more expensive to operate AI models. This move follows a trend in the AI ​​market, where more powerful tools are often made available for a fee.

How to access DuckDuckGo AI Chat

To try DuckDuckGo AI Chat, users can visit duck.ai or duckduckgo.com/chat. The process is simple: just choose the AI ​​model you want to start the conversation. You can change models at any time by clicking on the model name in the left sidebar of the chat and selecting another one. To clear a chat, simply click the flame icon to the left of the text bar.

If you wish to disable AI Chat, you can do so at any time by accessing the Search Settings menu and disabling the function.

Fonte: CNET