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DuckDuckGo poll says 90% responders don't want AI

⁨1802⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨very_well_lost@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3044488/90-of-duckduckgo-users-dont-want-ai.html

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  • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think most people find something like chatgpt and copilot useful in their day to day lives. LLMs are a very helpful and powerful technology. However, most people are against these models collecting every piece of data imaginable from you. People are against the tech, they’re against the people running the tech.

    I don’t think most people would mind if a FOSS LLM, that’s designed with privacy and complete user control over their data, was integrated with an option to completely opt out. I think that’s the only way to get people to trust this tech again and be onboard.

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    • MBech@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I think you’re wildly overestimating how much people care about their personal data.

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    • Jason2357@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      In the non tech crowds I have talked to about these tools, they have been mostly concerned with them just being wrong, and when they are integrated with other software, also annoyingly wrong.

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      • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Idk most people I know don’t see it as a magic crystal ball that’s expected to answer all questions perfectly. I’m sure people like that exist, but for the most part I think people understand that these LLMs are flawed. However, I know a lot of people who use them for everyday tasks like grammar checks, drafting emails/documents, brainstorming, basic analysis, and so on. They’re pretty good at these sort of things because that’s what they’re built for. The issue of privacy and greed remain, and I think some of the issues will at least be partially solved if they were designed with privacy in mind.

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    • Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I’m enjoying how ludicrous the idea of a “privacy friendly AI” is- trained on stolen data from inhaling everyone else’s data from the internet, but cares suddenly about “your” data.

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      • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It’s not impossible. You could build a model that’s built on consent where the data it’s trained on is obtained ethically, data collected from users is anonymized, and users can opt out if they want to. The current model of shameless theft isn’t the only path there is.

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      • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I think the idea is anonymous querying.

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    • Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If I understand right, the usefulness of basic questions like “Hey ChatGPT, how long do I boil pasta” is offset by the vast resources needed to answer that question. We just see it as simple and convenient as it tries to invest in its “build up interest” phase and runs at a loss. If the effort to sell the product that way fails, it’s going to fund itself by harvesting data.

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      • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I don’t disagree per se, but I think there’s a pretty big difference between people using chatgpt for correcting grammar or drafting an email and people using it generate a bunch of slop images/videos. The former is a more streamlined way to use the internet which has value, while the latter is just there for the sake of it. I think its feasible for newer LLM designs to focus on what’s actually popular and useful, and cutout the fat that’s draining a large amounts of resources for no good reason.

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    • GarboDog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      We can say maybe a personal LLM trained on data that you actually already own and having the infrastructure being self efficient sure but visual generation llms and data theft isn’t cool

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      • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        We can agree to that

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      • Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Amen brother (or sister)

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    • Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I think you may find yourself in the minority.

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  • kaotic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Don’t build AI into everything and assume you know how your users want to use it if they do want to use AI, Give me a MCP server to interact with your service instead and let users build out our own tooling.

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  • probable_possum@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    90%? Could be selection bias. I think, the result would be a different one if users would have been asked to in the Google AI tab.

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    • snail_hunter@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wasn’t this a poll to determine how DDG will use AI in the future? I don’t believe it was meant to be representative of the general population.

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      • probable_possum@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        determine how DDG will use AI in the future?

        In this regard it makes perfect sense. I guess it was just me who asked for the general population answer.

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      • ChanchoManco@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The pessimistic in me says it’s only a marketing campaign and they won’t change anything.They made the poll be shared by people on both camps and got “We’re great because we let you choose” as a response after answering.

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  • Electricd@lemmybefree.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Most objective article (sarcasm)

    In fact it has a whole-ass “AI” chatbot product, Duck.ai, which is bundled in with DuckDuckGo’s privacy VPN for $10 a month

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    • mlody@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh, I meet you again. I haven’t logged in for a long time 😅

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      • Electricd@lemmybefree.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Hi :)

        I’ve been much more inactive than before as well

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    • Korne127@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      What’s wrong about this?

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      • Electricd@lemmybefree.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Nothing if disclosed and you’re okay with it. Else, opinions and partiality get in the way of truth and facts

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  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    A massive underestimation

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    • Electricd@lemmybefree.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Nah, the privacy people are way more against AI that most people, I assure you

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  • Knightfox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    On DuckDuckGo that is unsurprising

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  • GhostFish@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Shocking. 

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  • timestatic@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Bro you guys are freaking out too much about AI. I mean a lot of companies are pushy about it but DuckDuckGo is not. There are actually quite a lot of use cases for me personally where AI can be really useful. DuckDuckGo is not Google or Microsoft. Chill out guys

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    • sly_lemmy@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      No one is freaking out. It’s use case might be valuable to some, that’s undeniable.

      The problem is that it’s current implementation is abhorrent, unjustifiable for what it achieves and forced onto users that don’t even want it in the first place.

      I know myself that a huge portion of users don’t want anything to do with AI. That they disagree with it for a number of very valid reasons. It’s not unreasonable to assume that different browser companies know this as well.

      So why the fuck does not a single one of these shitlord browser companies AT LEAST release a version of their browser without any AI bundled in (regardless of it being on or off by default, like, be for real), let alone oppose it. We’re essentially begging at this point for someone to just…do nothing.

      Doesn’t sound too difficult to me. But what do I know, I’m just a user of a browser.

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      • sly_lemmy@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Also, I said a ‘huge portion’ because I was generalising.

        90%

        90% of users want nothing to do with it.

        And yet, here it is, whether they like it or not

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    • Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Orienting the entire global economy for the niche use cases for AI of a very small number of people is a worthwhile freakout. We haven’t reached ‘freakout’ yet, but we should.

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      • SkellyMonstera@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This is def the main takeaway. We’ve been watching this AI craze unfold for years at this point with very little to show for it other than political weaponization, skyrocketing prices, and every piece of software we use being completely enshittified.

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  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There’s noai.duckduckgo.com and lite.duckduckgo.com to help you use DDG without this ai stuff and without having to fiddle with settings. Especially helpful if you frequently open private tabs and then the settings get cleared on normal DDG.

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  • Kilom@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Is this from the “poll” where you could click “Yes AI” or “No AI” without any further context or explanation on what the question even implies. Yes the marketing stunt works but that’s not a poll one should cite.

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    • emb@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes! It’s completely silly. A ‘poll’ designed exactly for the people that want a noai option, to be shared in places like this so those people (like me) can get the tiny satisfaction of hitting No.

      They were never wondering what the result would be, they were never trying to gauge their userbase’s preferences. It’s just a page they thought people would share to spread awareness of DDG.

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    • mjr@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s the one where I clicked “No AI” and the results page thanked me for voting yes!

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  • Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Even that I would consider weekday unjust. User data would HAVE to be opt IN.

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  • Stefan_S_from_H@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Even without AI, you can’t find Neocities sites there because DuckDuckGo relies on Bing.

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  • Affidavit@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I wonder what percentage of Lemmy users are absolutely sick of seeing variations of the exact same thing, over, and over, and over, and fucking over again.

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  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    and 45% of those replies were A.I.

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  • Thor_Whale@lemmus.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I find Google Gemini to be useless and annoying. I do enjoy grok but I don’t think life would end if we walked away from Ai tomorrow.

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  • m3t00@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    that was why i started using ddg

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  • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Blatantly misleading title. Makes it sounds like it encompassed more than just search engines.

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  • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I see the shit that people send out, obvious LLM crap, and wonder how poor they must write to consider the LLM output worth something. And then wonder if the people consuming this LLM crap are OK with baseline mediocrity at best. And that’s not even getting into the ethical issues of using it.

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  • Butterphinger@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Most people against Ai probably have their nose in SearXNG and 4get.

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  • Electricd@lemmybefree.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Most people wanting AI probably don’t use DDG though. Else they would use Brave Search I guess

    I haven’t seen the poll though

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  • Abundance114@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Now can we have a poll from Dr. Thunder about what we went our Cola to taste like?

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  • MortUS@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Sure, but I wonder how many of them actually understand what AI is and means.

    Most commenters on both Reddit and Lemmy don’t understand what a LLM is or how/if it differentiates from AI itself.

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    • QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      i doubt that was the intention given their products duck.ai

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  • miridius@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Guess I’m in the 10%

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    • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You want to destroy our planet and pay way more in electricity for a random sentence generator to spit out slop?

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      • miridius@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        You’ve managed to be wrong 4 times in one sentence, that’s impressive

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  • Azal@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I have found a couple times an LLM being good for searches. My example is scooters in the US, because of commute I’d like to find an electric scooter, the kind like a Vespa. But you do a search, you find all sorts about the standing scooters, look for electric motorcycles and they start getting to car level prices or aren’t street legal, it gets to be a mess. Chat GPT turned that search into a relatively quick one that I could find a local place that I’m going to check out when there’s not ice on the ground. But the important part was making it require links. As a tool, it can have its uses.

    So all of that said… Google and other searches doing AI did fuck all and nothing to help on this, and I agree 100% I do not want AI on the search for DDG

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  • BC_viper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Every poll is instantly skewed against the user base. I think Ai is amazing, but it’s not worth the hype. Im cautious about its actual uses and its spectacular failures. Im not a Fuck AI person. But im also not and Ai is going to be our God in 2 years person. And I feel like im more the average.

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    • BC_viper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      See, this poll is instantly skewed by haters.

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  • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    anyone under 74 use DuckDuckGo?

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    • thegoodyinthehoody@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes

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    • Mondoshawan@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      ಠ_ಠ

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  • Grainne@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    How many people want Bing results as well?Coll stick to Searx

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    • MrKoyun@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Bing gets shat on too much. I used it for a while a couple years ago and other than the usual microslop shadyness it was a completely fine search engine and the search results were fine.

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  • deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I like the ai assistant answers, seems to not include much SEO bs. Ddg, bing, google, startpage, whatever… All shit SEO results imho

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    • very_well_lost@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The AI assistant answers are just synthesized from the shitty SEO results.

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      • deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        True but rather have that then sorting through that myself.

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