I have been a fan of DuckDuckGo for a very long time. I discover the search engine to be much more reliable than Google and I do take pleasure in my privateness. However once I heard that the corporate was dipping its webbed ft into the AI waters, my preliminary response was a roll of the eyes.
Then I gave Duck.ai a go — and was instantly impressed. (DuckDuck Go’s AI options launched in June 2024 and got here out of beta final week.)
Duck.ai does one thing that different related merchandise do not — it provides you a alternative. You may select between the proprietary GPT-4o mini, o3-mini, and Claude 3 providers or go open-source with Llama 3.3 and Mistral Small 3. Duck.ai can also be personal: Your entire queries are anonymized by DuckDuckGo, so that you could be certain no third-party will ever have entry to your AI chats.
After giving Duck.ai a trial over the weekend, I discovered myself favoring it an increasing number of over Perplexity, primarily as a result of I might choose which LLM I exploit. That is a giant deal as a result of each mannequin is completely different. For instance, GPT-4o excels in real-time interactions, voice nuance, and sentiment evaluation throughout modalities, whereas Llama 3.2 is especially sturdy in picture recognition and visible understanding duties.
I sometimes discover Llama 3.3 a a lot better choice than GPT-4o as a result of it gives a greater understanding of your queries. Though GPT-4o is lightning quick, I might fairly dig deeper into the matters. Which LLM you select is as much as your wants and what you are researching.
Did I point out that Duck.ai is free?
That is proper, it even saves your chats regionally (and solely regionally), so you possibly can at all times save a chat and are available again to it later for additional “discourse.”
One other factor DuckDuckGo does otherwise with Duck.ai is that it strips private metadata from chats, so that they can’t be tied again to the consumer in any manner. Though current chats are saved regionally, there may be an exception for information wanted by suppliers to reply to prompts (that is acknowledged within the Finish Consumer License Settlement). Nevertheless, DuckDuckGo has agreements that restrict how information can be utilized for coaching, and all chats should be deleted inside 30 days. It’s also possible to disable Latest Chats, so nothing is saved.
Duck.ai additionally contains immediate solutions you possibly can click on on to get on the spot outcomes. For instance, I see 4 immediate solutions:
- Counsel a title for a weblog submit
- Write code
- Lookup fundamental info
- Put together for a dialog
If I click on New Chat (high left), these solutions may change. You may’t click on one immediate suggestion repeatedly for various outcomes, however by clicking New Chat, you will get a distinct set of 4 immediate solutions.
My favourite facet of Duck.ai is well switching between completely different LLMs with out downloading and putting in them. I sometimes use Msty/Ollama on my desktop for AI-based analysis, but when I wish to use a distinct mannequin, I need to obtain and set up it. On high of that, once I use Msty, I am doing all the things regionally, so it may be a bit slower.
With Duck.ai, all the things (even the slower fashions) is exponentially quicker than what’s on my desktop. If you happen to’re curious, I discovered myself defaulting to the Llama 3.3 mannequin over Duck.ai’s different choices. I discover it quick sufficient however delivers higher, extra correct outcomes.
Methods to use Duck.ai
That is easy. All you must do is level your desktop browser (any will do) to Duck.ai, click on Get Began, agree with the EULA, choose your mannequin, and chat. That is it. No putting in, no account to create… simply quick entry to AI.
Even higher, it is free. Duck.ai (and all of the fashions it contains) is free to make use of as a lot as you want. If you happen to’re in search of a quick, easy-to-use AI service that will not value you a penny, I extremely advocate giving Duck.ai a strive. I have been utilizing their providers and apps for a very long time, and if there’s an organization on this specific sector that I belief, it is DuckDuckGo.
Lastly, I might be remiss if I did not point out the brand new Duck.ai service is on the market within the newest launch of the DuckDuckGo browser for Android, iOS, MacOS, and Home windows. Sadly, there is no such thing as a DuckDuckGo browser for Linux but.
And there you’ve got it: the simplicity and performance of Duck.ai. After utilizing the service for a number of days, you possibly can name me a convert.
