DuckDuckGo asked its users how they felt about AI in search and the reply was a hard shove towards the exit.
A built-in poll drew 175,354 votes and more than 90 per cent picked the no-AI option.
The privacy-focused search engine ran two versions, one with AI and one without, then let users choose, and more than 90 per cent of 175,354 votes went for No AI.
DuckDuckGo is offering an AI-free search experience at noai.duckduckgo.com, while yesai.duckduckgo.com is there for anyone who fancies machine-made waffle.
DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg said: “You can also customise the search settings at duckduckgo.com for something in between.”
Users can toggle AI-generated images on or off, as well as the Search Assist function, which provides AI summaries for queries.
There is the option to disable the Duck.ai tool, which lets users chat with various AI models, plus a simple toggle at duckduckgo.com between traditional search and duck.ai.
AI in search is getting shoved into everything, with Google’s AI Overviews and Microsoft’s Copilot chat option on Bing.com turning up whether you asked or not.
Results have been mixed, and hallucinations remain a problem, even if large language models can sometimes help people dig deeper with follow-up questions.
On DuckDuckGo, though, the mood is clear enough that it does not need an AI summary to explain it, and that is got to sting.
