Live data from Hacker News

DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

spreadprivacy.com

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#41
Hi all, I'm the author of this post (and the CEO/Founder of DuckDuckGo). Happy to take a few questions about how DuckAssist works, but to clarify what I think may be some confusion from the other comments, we're not just asking a LLM to summarize Wikipedia from its training, nor did we train an LLM on Wikipedia -- instead, we use our own Wikipedia index to pull out the relevant sentences, and then ask the LLM to verify the answer is in the sentences and then: if so, output it simply; if not, try to answer a similar question, and if that doesn't exist, then do nothing.

It can still be wrong for a variety of reasons mentioned in the post, but this is a different approach and in our validation testing (using banks of questions with known/unknown answers in Wikipedia) we know it works reasonably well, and have a lot of ideas of how to make it work much better over time. This is a beta after all, and we have plans both for improvements and additional features.

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#42
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So no dropbox, no firefox/chrome, no thunderbird, no whatsapp client, no telegram client, not git ?

Mostly correct. Browsers can block ads, trackers, Javascript libraries, and elements at will using extensions. "Native" apps for web services, such as these Electron-wrapped clients, have full access to the trackers / analytics endpoints, and more. That's a big nono.

It's not watertight, but controlling your own DNS, as through pi-hole, helps protect against this.

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#43
Something something, lame duck joke.

I really do not see any wisdom in turning search engines into answer engines. Yes, they're bespoke toys today, and you can still search the web alongside asking a LLM for an answer. But the day this becomes the default, it just becomes a countdown to the day "search" is depreciated entirely. And then rather than "doing your own research", you get to pick which Big Tech silo you trust to be the objective arbiter of truth. What a great future we're hurtling towards at breakneck speed...

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#44
post #7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But; "If the trial goes well, we plan to roll it out to all DuckDuckGo search users soon."

That is the same playbook by which Microsoft plays this game. MS: "IT IS OPEN FOR EVERYBODY TO TRY!" Me: Ok, let me try it. MS: Ahem, ok, just give us your email Me: What? Ok, dammit, here it is. MS: Ok, now install our browser. Me: What?? Ok, done. MS: Ok, now allow us to track your location. Me: What??? No! MS: Sorry, something went wrong. Me: What? MS: Sorry, something went wrong. Me: What about the chat thing? MS…

OpenAI drafted a paper proposing that in the future, platforms require proof of personhood. Plus it's MS, so they're going to slurp as much as they can get away with.

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#46
post #45

Don't really feel the direction DDG has been going lately. What are the best alternatives that still covers my need for !bangs?

Maybe startpage? I'm also looking for something. That has scratched my itch thus far, but not sure if there are better alternatives.

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#47
post #41

Hi all, I'm the author of this post (and the CEO/Founder of DuckDuckGo). Happy to take a few questions about how DuckAssist works, but to clarify what I think may be some confusion from the other comments, we're not just asking a LLM to summarize Wikipedia from its training, nor did we train an LLM on Wikipedia -- instead, we use our own Wikipedia index to pull out the relevant sentences, and then ask the LLM to veri…

[deleted]

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#48
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the same playbook by which Microsoft plays this game. MS: "IT IS OPEN FOR EVERYBODY TO TRY!" Me: Ok, let me try it. MS: Ahem, ok, just give us your email Me: What? Ok, dammit, here it is. MS: Ok, now install our browser. Me: What?? Ok, done. MS: Ok, now allow us to track your location. Me: What??? No! MS: Sorry, something went wrong. Me: What? MS: Sorry, something went wrong. Me: What about the chat thing? MS…

OpenAI drafted a paper proposing that in the future, platforms require proof of personhood. Plus it's MS, so they're going to slurp as much as they can get away with.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/07/worldcoin-cofounded-by-sam...

Re: DuckDuckGo Launches DuckAssist

#50

Something something, lame duck joke. I really do not see any wisdom in turning search engines into answer engines. Yes, they're bespoke toys today , and you can still search the web alongside asking a LLM for an answer. But the day this becomes the default, it just becomes a countdown to the day "search" is depreciated entirely. And then rather than "doing your own research", you get to pick which Big Tech silo you t…

It's "hurdling towards". All's it takes is a quick search on Bingle Duck Jeeves! to know that fact. Do you're research :)
Post reply on HN