On Thursday, DuckDuckGo unveiled a new "AI Chat" service that allows users to converse with four mid-range large language models (LLMs) from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral in an interface similar to ChatGPT while attempting to preserve privacy and anonymity. While the AI models involved can output inaccurate information readily, the site allows users to test different mid-range LLMs without having to install anything or sign up for an account.
DuckDuckGo's AI Chat currently features access to OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku, and two open source models, Meta's Llama 3 and Mistral's Mixtral 8x7B. The service is currently free to use within daily limits. Users can access AI Chat through the DuckDuckGo search engine, direct links to the site, or by using "!ai" or "!chat" shortcuts in the search field. AI Chat can also be disabled in the site's settings for users with accounts.
According to DuckDuckGo, chats on the service are anonymized, with metadata and IP address removed to prevent tracing back to individuals. The company states that chats are not used for AI model training, citing its privacy policy and terms of use.
"We have agreements in place with all model providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted by the providers within 30 days," says DuckDuckGo, "and that none of the chats made on our platform can be used to train or improve the models."
However, the privacy experience is not bulletproof because, in the case of GPT-3.5 and Claude Haiku, DuckDuckGo is required to send a user's inputs to remote servers for processing over the Internet. Given certain inputs (i.e., "Hey, GPT, my name is Bob, and I live on Main Street, and I just murdered Bill"), a user could still potentially be identified if such an extreme need arose.
If you're a DM and you want to flesh out an NPC, for example, it's real easy to get the peg-legged innkeeper named Lars to tell you all about himself faster than rocks can fall on your lovable party of idiots. Same thing with worldbuilding. "I want to create a city of dwarves who are obsessed with human culture. What are some features I should include?"