DuckDuckGo integrates AI to fetch direct answers from Wikipedia

Search engine DuckDuckGo adds a feature that allows users to get instant answers to questions through an artificial intelligence. DuckAssist uses an OpenAI API and pulls information from Wikipedia.

The feature is first tested as a beta and will be available to all users in the coming weeks, writes the company. The assistant is called DuckAssist. For some questions, it generates an Instant Answer answer field where a visitor’s question is answered immediately. DuckDuckGo then first gives the option to have the question answered immediately, after which the actual answer follows.

DuckAssist is based on an API from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and from Anthropic. That is a start-up in which Alphabet recently invested 300 million dollars. DuckDuckGo does not say which OpenAI API DuckAssist is using. That may also be the older GPT-3 model instead of ChatGPT.

The answers to questions mainly come from Wikipedia. The AI ​​interprets the user’s question and the most appropriate Wikipedia page that might answer it. In addition, DuckAssist looks at alternative websites such as encyclopedias, but DuckDuckGo does not say how that distribution is.

The makers also warn that the AI ​​mainly answers concrete questions and not subjective questions such as what is the best of something. “That means you won’t see DuckAssist on most queries,” say the developers.

DuckAssist is currently only available in English and can only be used on the mobile and desktop apps and through the browser extension during the beta period. Later the feature will also be available for web users.