Todd A. Jacobs | Pragmatic Cybersecurity<p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/DuckDuckGo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DuckDuckGo</span></a> is now offering free, <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/anonymized" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>anonymized</span></a> access to a number of fast <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AI</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/chatbots" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>chatbots</span></a> that won't train in your data. You currently don't get all the premium models and features of paid services, but you do get access to privacy-promoting, anonymized versions of smaller models like GPT-4o mini from <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/OpenAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenAI</span></a> and open-source <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/MoE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MoE</span></a> (mixture of experts) models like Mixstral 8x7B.</p><p>Of course, for truly sensitive or classified data you should never use online services at all. Anything online carries heightened risks of human error; deliberate malfeasance; corporate espionage; legal, illegal, or extra-legal warrants; and network wiretapping. I personally trust DuckDuckGo's no-logging policies and presume their anonymization techniques are sound, but those of us in <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/cybersecurity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cybersecurity</span></a> know the practical limitations of such measures.</p><p>For any situation where those measures are insufficient, you'll need to run your own instance of a suitable model on a local AI engine. However, that's not really the <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/threatmodel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>threatmodel</span></a> for the average user looking to get basic things done. Great use cases include finding quick answers that traditional search engines aren't good at, or performing common AI tasks like summarizing or improving textual information. </p><p>The AI service provides the typical user with essential AI capabilities for free. It also takes steps to prevent for-profit entities with privacy-damaging <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/TOS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TOS</span></a> from training on your data at whim. DuckDuckGo's approach seems perfectly suited to these basic use cases.</p><p>I laud DuckDuckGo for their ongoing commitment to privacy, and for offering this valuable additional to the AI ecosystem.</p><p><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/chat" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">duckduckgo.com/chat</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p>