As its traffic continues to climb, alternative search engine DuckDuckGo is leaning into anti-AI sentiment with the launch of new browser extensions that allow users to set its no-AI search experience, noai.duckduckgo.com, as their default search engine.
First 'graph of TFA.
The specific URL "noai.duckduckgo.com" omits any AI summaries, generators, chats, or prompts, as advertised.
The unqualified page, www.duckduckgo.com, does include AI features at present. But that's not what's being claimed.
"AI is not the default" is not a claim made anywhere AFAICT, especially not with that wording. The only thing you could be referring to is the explicitly no-ai url, which AFAICT has no "Auto-Generated" "Search Assist" (that's kinda the point), and it also hasn't used that phrase ever that I've seen in months.
So I kinda feel I have to ask: did you read the article, or did you read an AI summary?
Why in general? Because if you don't read the article, you run a strong risk of reacting to things that the article didn't actually say. See OP for a good example.
Why this OP specifically? Because he is strongly reacting to the article's claim that "Ai is not the default" ... which is not stated or implied by the article he's replying to.
The article is a useful bulletin that DDG has a "no AI" function, previously accessible via a URL and now through extensions as well. OP is acting like DDG is claiming to be an anti-AI company, based on nothing stated in the article.
It's just that people have different understanding of the world and assuming something is self evident is dangerous. For instance the problem here is the apparent disconnection between the comment and the article, but maybe it's just that the connection isn't evident to you.
Take this response to a comment of mine for instance https://hackernews.hn/item?id=48144461. I've read the article and someone thought I didn't because he didn't see the connection I saw and acted all righteously, almost as this threads OP.
So in order to avoid embarrassing yourself online it's always nice to first give people the benefit of the doubt and then avoid being sneaky and clever when communication what you want.
I don't owe the benefit of the doubt to a comment that says "this is just marketing" and "are people this stupid?". If OP is going to make dismissive, vitriolic comments like that, he should probably make sure that the article is actually saying anything like what he claims.
Edit: I know how to turn off the goddamn AI that’s not the point
I've used DDG as my primary search and it was maddening when they put that stupid AI response thing in there last year because it was not helpful and I'm a huge advocate of AI
Been a DDG user for about a decade, ever since I stopped using Google search.
Click the gear on the Search Assist box, and click the bottom option that says "Never". Right beneath it, it says: "Completely disables Search Assist".
It's always been easy to avoid DDG's AI, which was the point of my comment.
There is a very prominent "show always / show on demand / disable completely" button, which you can choose and is respected indefinitely from that point on. That's orders of magnitude better than anything else, and really the best you can do short of refusing to use any AI at all.
