DuckDuckGo Launches ChatGPT-Based AI Assistant, Promises To Give More Answers!

DuckDuckGo now has an assistant based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). (photo: Doc. DuckDuckGo)

JAKARTA - DuckDuckGo now has an assistant based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Launched starting today in the beta version called DuckAssist.

DuckAssist can directly answer search requests for users. Generative AI-baseds developed in partnership with ChatGPT creators, OpenAI and research firm AI Anthropic.

Anthropic is a startup founded by former OpenAI employees, to strengthen the ability to summarize natural languages, combined with its own active indexing of Wikipedia and other reference sites it uses for response sources.

Furthermore, Duck Assist will work when users ask through the search engine about the color of a dress that went viral in 2015, then users will get direct answers and a little more information about how the dress was made.

Launching TechCrunch, Thursday, March 9, DuckAssist is only available through DuckDuckGo apps and browser extensions, but the company plans to roll it out to all users in the coming weeks.

The feature, which is still in beta, can be accessed for free and does not require users to login. Currently, only available in English.

DuckDuckGo CEO and Founder Kurt Weinberg stated that the AI models his current search engine uses to support the summary of natural languages are OpenAI's Davinci model and rock model from Anthropic.

He also noted DuckDuckGo was experimenting with OpenAI's new Turbo model which was recently announced. Sources to be used to display DuckAssist's answer are 99 percent from Wikipedia.

The generative AI behind Duck Assist produces new texts for certain queries, where standard instant answers generally issue quotes. In this way, Duck Assist can be more responsive directly to queries, display information buried in articles quickly, and synthesize information from some Wikipedia snippets. As a result, this can answer wider questions," Weinberg said.

Weinberg in the future will seek to find other reliable sources. He added that the generalized AI summary is the main pathway to expand how many questions can be immediately answered in this way, adding a generative AI into the mixture here as a full integrated instant answer.

"The two main benefits compared to other instant answers are Duck Assist's answer to direct response to user questions, and that Duck Assist can answer more questions significantly," Weinberg said.

On the privacy side, DuckDuckGo promised this search with the AI feature to be anonymous and, in line with its main privacy pledge, no data was shared with any third parties.