They’ve decided to incorporate ChatGPT.

  • @[email protected]English
    88•2 months ago

    I mean, this seems like a really stupid gripe. You can completely disable it for your searches: https://i.xno.dev/FUHSj.png

    In addition, it gives you a way to interface with ChatGPT without an account, or using the API, and maintaining privacy… I see this as an absolute win. They stay competitive by including AI for people who can’t live without, while making it completely optional. Offering duck.ai is a smart move, too. I just don’t see the issue here.

    • @[email protected]English
      39•2 months ago

      Defaults matter. Every time you open a private browsing window, that’s what you’re going to get. Every time you use LibreWolf or Firefox Focus or any other browser that disables/clears cookies by default (which is a good practice), that’s what you’re going to get.

      I don’t want anything I search for going into OpenAI. Ever. I’d feel fine about this if they hosted their own models.

      • @[email protected]
        31•2 months ago

        This. I fucking hate that it’s opt out. Every goddamn time I open Firefox and run a search I gotta disable the stupid AI bullshit.

        • @[email protected]
          13•2 months ago

          I don’t think it AI’s your search immediately. It just shows you the option to generate an AI response. At least that’s how it’s been working for me. It’s not doing anything unless you hit that button.

          • @[email protected]
            3•2 months ago

            It’s been hit and miss for me. It feels like there’s some cached queries that it presents the AI results for without user interaction. But it’s very clearly marked.

      • @[email protected]English
        -8•2 months ago

        Like, sure. That’s a valid argument. But it’s not the end of the goddamn world because they make you click a button to use a completely free service.

        If you’re that pissed about it, then setup SearX yourself. Not sure why every “technologist” feels like their opinion is the only that matters and gets butthurt about shit like this.

  • @[email protected]
    30•2 months ago

    On second thought, maybe they’re doing the right thing. Offering what the competition does with improved privacy and the option to switch it off completely. I personally think LLMs are pretty bad at real-life queries, but ultimately the users will have to decide.

    • @[email protected]English
      8•2 months ago

      They’ve helped me figure out some nested spreadsheet formulas that were pretty complicated to me.

      What typically happens is that they mess up, but their malfunctioning code still has something in it that I hadn’t considered, which leads me in the right direction. They have their place in terms of helpfulness when you can’t or don’t want to wait for someone.

  • @[email protected]English
    16•2 months ago

    I use ducks AI chat to help me with small tasks and its honestly pretty great. Always worked and has provided me with useful results.

    They claim its anonymous, maybe they are lying, maybe they are not. I make sure to rinse anything I put in there first just in case.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•2 months ago

      I really worry about places that claim that AI access is anonymous.

      The models they’re using aren’t super cheap to run and they don’t get a lot cheaper with scale.

      When you are the product, and the anonymize the data that they sell to people, They still have your correlations there somewhere. If they get hacked, or sold, with a simply change their business model you are at risk.

    • TXL
      3•2 months ago

      I think searx is using POST or something, which means you can’t bookmark searches, they’re broken in history, and if when you restart a browser, your search tabs get completely lost.

      It’s been the worst search UI I’ve seen in the nearly 30 years I’ve used web searches.

      Still use it, because of the alternatives.

  • Jack
    10•2 months ago

    Am I the only one noticably receiving more adds on duck duck go last few days/week?

    I feel like the adds and the AI response thing make it much worse.

    Have to scroll a whole screen untill I see a organic result.

  • @[email protected]
    8•2 months ago

    “Educational purposes”… because everyone knows it’s good educational practice to spout utter bullshit at people wanting information.

  • @[email protected]
    6•2 months ago

    Has something changed? This isn’t news. Also why is this privacy related? No data is being exposed.

  • wuphysics87
    4•2 months ago

    Not phrasing your queries as a question makes it more likely you will find what you are looking for in a traditional search

  • @[email protected]
    4•2 months ago

    I’m open for alternative suggestions. The ease of wiping browser data while excluding preferred sites in duckduckgo is really nice.

  • @[email protected]
    3•2 months ago

    Yeah DDG has been serving up AI slop lately, it’s really annoying.

    Ducky see, ducky do. It’s kind of pathetic…