Anonymously Converse with the AI via DuckDuckGo
The act of chatting with AI has become somewhat of a concern with regards to privacy, as Meta has admitted to using conversations for training their AI software. Now, privacy-focused search engine and browser company, DuckDuckGo, is offering people a means to regain some anonymity in this regard.
DuckDuckGo's AI Chat, which serves as a medium for engaging with AI chatbots without disclosing certain details, has become accessible to everyone. Users can now converse with OpenAI's GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku, Meta's Llama 3, and Mixtral's Mixtral 8x7B. There is no need to use DuckDuckGo's browser in order to access this service. It can be accessed by visiting either duck.ai or duckduckgo.com/chat. The search engine, DuckDuckGo, will now include a Chat tab that can be used to initiate conversations on a particular topic (or users can start the search with !ai or !chat).
After navigating to the page, users can select the model and commence chatting as usual. This is where DuckDuckGo's privacy features come into play.
DuckDuckGo claims that "all chats are completely anonymous: they cannot be traced back to any one individual." This implies that when interacting with an AI model through DuckDuckGo, the service will pose questions on your behalf, thereby concealing your IP address from the chatbot's owners. Furthermore, users are provided with a "Fire" button, which they can use to clear the chat and begin anew.
DuckDuckGo assures users that chats made using its service are not used for any AI training purposes. This might sound doubtful, as the chatbots will still send their conversations back to their respective servers, right?
DuckDuckGo asserts that "the company has agreements in place with all model providers to ensure that any saved chats are deleted by the providers within 30 days, and that none of the chats made on [its] platform can be used to train or improve the models."
However, there are some limitations to this service. For instance, you might not have immediate access to cutting-edge models like GPT-4. The fact that DuckDuckGo has to negotiate with these providers to add new chatbots to the service can be somewhat limiting as well.
Additionally, partnered companies are allowed to retain your chats in their servers for up to 30 days, which could be a cause for concern despite DuckDuckGo's claim that "all metadata is removed."
Despite these limitations, it's a positive step towards engaging with AI, particularly as Meta is compelling users to submit essays to safeguard their data on its platforms. DuckDuckGo's AI Chat is currently free within a certain daily limit, but the company is exploring launching a paid plan with a higher limit and access to more advanced models.
Individuals who would rather avoid engaging with AI within DuckDuckGo can disable the feature from the Search Settings menu.
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DuckDuckGo's AI Chat, which utilizes models like OpenAI's GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku, and others, is a prime example of how tech companies are integrating AI into their services. The anonymous nature of DuckDuckGo's chat platform ensures that these tech interactions remain private, as stated by DuckDuckGo, "all chats are completely anonymous: they cannot be traced back to any one individual."
