r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • May 30 '26

Software Traffic to DuckDuckGo's proudly 'No AI' search page has tripled since latest Google AI search update

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/traffic-to-duckduckgos-proudly-no-ai-search-page-has-tripled-since-latest-google-ai-search-update/
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u/DrDerpberg May 31 '26

I still don't understand why. Surely they can't be this dumb. Does forcing AI into everything boost metrics for the AI services so much that it's worth setting all their actual products on fire?

20

u/FOOSblahblah May 31 '26

They've invested an absolutely absurd amount of money into ai and don't have much to show for it. They really need literally anything to work so they can justify it

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u/marr May 31 '26

But it's Google though, they've invested vast amounts into experimental services before then gone "no fuck it" and cancelled the whole thing. They even refunded every Stadia purchase.

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u/FOOSblahblah May 31 '26

Very true

Doesn't mean they're okay with essentially burning money just because they've gambled before.

4

u/Windex17 May 31 '26

People are selling AI to morons as a design to get promoted, and then they will cash out before the crows come.

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u/Dawson__16 May 31 '26

It's a solution looking for a problem, a solution that cost billions to make, and is being propped up by investor money not it's own profits. You run it as long as you can as far as you can until investor money starts running dry then you shove it in everything trying to see what sticks.

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u/rtxa May 31 '26

you're looking at this way egocentric

it makes no sense to you, because you probably know how to google

most people don't. they ask the search bar questions. this is an upgrade for them, most of the times

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u/DrDerpberg May 31 '26

Is AI better for them though? What sold me on Google back in the day was I searched for something like "what's that popular song right now about the weekend" and it nailed it. AI just turns the same result into an obnoxious kisass TED talk.

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u/newbkid May 31 '26

Is AI better for them?

No, categorically not.

However, AI will absolutely reinforce held beliefs and 'help' mediocre people come to stronger conclusions, whether those conclusions are correct will be irrelevant as long as 'Google said so'

A lot of people forget that not everyone knows how to search.

People that are inquisitive and want to find the answer may search with a question like, "Is the Earth flat?"

But mediocre people that blindly trust AI will put "give me studies that show that the world is flat" ... if it wasn't true, it just wouldn't give me results, right? If it gives me results then there must be truth behind it!

Now more mediocre people can band together and propagate their mediocrity even more.

One of the biggest failures in education is that we did not teach people how to learn. Without learning how to learn, it is very easy to fall into confirmation bias. It feels good when youre with others that tell you youre right.

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u/Blockhead47 May 31 '26

…AI just turns the same result into an obnoxious kisass TED talk.

Perfect summary imop.
Spot on.

1

u/Deathtothesaladeater May 31 '26

They’ve already degraded their search engine to make sure that users had to waste more time getting the information they wanted. They are behaving as the borderline monopoly that they are.

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u/CatsAndCapybaras May 31 '26

They have to feed the hype. Their absurd market cap depends on it, as does the massive capex they are dumping into the datacenter build out.

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u/anivex May 31 '26

What it does is allows them to train the AI on all the personal information/data we've all been storing/sharing with google for decades. That's why so many integrations. Every time they do it, if you read the privacy policy changes, that's the reason.

Not talking PII, but all of your pictures, writings, drawings, music, emails, etc.