AI is one of the most widely hated things to come into existence in our lifetime. While the general population almost universally hates everything about it, companies are forcing it into anything and everything regardless of whether people want it or not... While it could be handy if it wasn't exploitative, that's never going to happen. So if you are like me and a ton of other people, you'll want to purge it from every aspect of your life, including DuckDuckGo. While it sucks they've added AI features, it's decent of them to have added options to disable AI as well.
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Takeaways:
- Is there a way to disable all AI features in DuckDuckGo?
- What's the best way to get rid of AI features in DuckDuckGo?
Table of Contents
Why Disable AI Features?
If you're like me, you don't need any convincing on why you might want to disable AI features, but if you're still on the sidelines, here are a few things that might tip you over the edge.
More Traditional Search Results: Seeing links to websites rather than AI-generated summaries that attempt to answer questions directly.
Bad Advice: Getting terrible information from AI results.
Better Privacy: Although DuckDuckGo's AI features are designed with privacy in mind, they are less trustworthy than traditional systems.
Less Clutter: AI assistants, summaries, and generated content can add extra elements to search pages that just clutter the interface.
Being Sick of AI-Generated Slop: People are frustrated with the increasing amount of AI-generated content appearing online and would rather minimise their exposure to it.
Disable DuckDuckGo AI Chat
The most obvious AI feature offered by DuckDuckGo is Duck.ai, formerly known as DuckDuckGo AI Chat.
To disable or hide it:
- Open DuckDuckGo Search.
- Click the Settings menu.
- Select AI Features.
- Find the Duck.ai or Chat option.
- Turn the feature Off or set it to never appear.
This prevents the AI chat assistant from appearing as a suggested tool while searching.
Disable AI-Assisted Answers
DuckDuckGo sometimes displays AI-generated summaries, commonly called Assist responses, at the top of search results.
To disable them:
- Open DuckDuckGo.
- Click Settings.
- Select AI Features.
- Find Assist.
- Change the setting to Off.
Once disabled, search results will focus on traditional web links rather than AI-generated summaries.
Hide AI-Generated Images
DuckDuckGo also includes an option to reduce AI-generated images within image search results.
- Perform any search.
- Open the Images tab.
- Click the Settings icon near the search box.
- Select Manage next to AI Features.
- Turn Hide AI-Generated Images on.
- Click Save & Exit.
While the filter is not perfect, it does a decent job of reducing AI-generated artwork and synthetic images.
Disable AI Features in the DuckDuckGo Browser
If you use the DuckDuckGo Browser on Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone, most AI settings can be managed from the same location.
- Launch the DuckDuckGo Browser.
- Open Settings.
- Navigate to AI Features.
From here, you can disable Assist, Duck.ai, and AI-generated image options using the same controls available on the web version.
What You Cannot Disable
Even after turning off all available AI features, there are still limitations, but they aren't really solvable at this point in time. DuckDuckGo cannot prevent AI-generated articles, videos, images, or social media posts from appearing on websites you visit. While disabling Assist removes AI summaries generated by DuckDuckGo, websites appearing in search results may still contain AI-written content.
