The service, accessible at Duck.ai, is globally available and features a light and clean user interface. Users can choose from four AI models: two closed-source models and two open-source models. The closed-source models are OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo and Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku, while the open-source models are Meta’s Llama-3 70B and Mistral AI’s Mixtral 8x7b.

What sets DuckDuckGo AI Chat apart is its commitment to user privacy. Neither DuckDuckGo nor the chatbot providers can use user data to train their models, ensuring that interactions remain private and anonymous. DuckDuckGo also strips away metadata, such as server or IP addresses, so that queries appear to originate from the company itself rather than individual users.

The company has agreements in place with all model providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted within 30 days, and that none of the chats made on the platform can be used to train or improve the models. This makes preserving privacy easier than changing the privacy settings for each service.

In an era where online services are increasingly hungry for user data, DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat service is a breath of fresh air. The company’s commitment to privacy is a direct response to the growing concerns about data collection and usage in the AI industry. By providing a private and anonymous platform for users to interact with AI chatbots, DuckDuckGo is setting a new standard for the industry.

DuckDuckGo’s AI service is free to use within a daily limit, and the company is considering launching a paid tier to reduce or eliminate these limits. The service is designed to be a complementary partner to its search engine, allowing users to switch between search and AI chat for a more comprehensive search experience.

“We view AI Chat and search as two different but powerful tools to help you find what you’re looking for – especially when you’re exploring a new topic. You might be shopping or doing research for a project and are unsure how to get started. In situations like these, either AI Chat or Search could be good starting points.” the company explained.

“If you start by asking a few questions in AI Chat, the answers may inspire traditional searches to track down reviews, prices, or other primary sources. If you start with Search, you may want to switch to AI Chat for follow-up queries to help make sense of what you’ve read, or for quick, direct answers to new questions that weren’t covered in the web pages you saw.”

To accommodate that user workflow, DuckDuckGo has made AI Chat accessible through DuckDuckGo Private Search for quick access.

The launch of DuckDuckGo AI Chat comes at a time when the AI industry is facing increasing scrutiny over data privacy and usage. The service is a welcome addition for privacy-conscious individuals, joining the recent launch of Venice AI by crypto entrepreneur Erik Voorhees. Venice AI features an uncensored AI chatbot and image generator that doesn’t require accounts and doesn’t retain data..

As the AI industry continues to evolve, it’s clear that privacy will remain a top concern for users. With the launch of DuckDuckGo AI Chat, the company is taking a significant step towards providing users with a private and secure platform for interacting with AI chatbots.

See also: AI pioneers turn whistleblowers and demand safeguards

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Gemini 1.5 Flash is a new addition to Google’s family of models, designed to be faster and more efficient to serve at scale. While lighter-weight than the 1.5 Pro, it retains the ability for multimodal reasoning across vast amounts of information and features the breakthrough long context window of one million tokens.

“1.5 Flash excels at summarisation, chat applications, image and video captioning, data extraction from long documents and tables, and more,” explained Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. “This is because it’s been trained by 1.5 Pro through a process called ‘distillation,’ where the most essential knowledge and skills from a larger model are transferred to a smaller, more efficient model.”

Meanwhile, Google has significantly improved the capabilities of its Gemini 1.5 Pro model, extending its context window to a groundbreaking two million tokens. Enhancements have been made to its code generation, logical reasoning, multi-turn conversation, and audio and image understanding capabilities.

The company has also integrated Gemini 1.5 Pro into Google products, including the Gemini Advanced and Workspace apps. Additionally, Gemini Nano now understands multimodal inputs, expanding beyond text-only to include images.

Google announced its next generation of open models, Gemma 2, designed for breakthrough performance and efficiency. The Gemma family is also expanding with PaliGemma, the company’s first vision-language model inspired by PaLI-3.

Finally, Google shared progress on Project Astra (advanced seeing and talking responsive agent), its vision for the future of AI assistants. The company has developed prototype agents that can process information faster, understand context better, and respond quickly in conversation.

“We’ve always wanted to build a universal agent that will be useful in everyday life. Project Astra, shows multimodal understanding and real-time conversational capabilities,” explained Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

“With technology like this, it’s easy to envision a future where people could have an expert AI assistant by their side, through a phone or glasses.”

Google says that some of these capabilities will be coming to its products later this year. Developers can find all of the Gemini-related announcements they need here.

See also: GPT-4o delivers human-like AI interaction with text, audio, and vision integration

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Mistral AI stated that Mistral Large outscored most major LLMs except for OpenAI’s recently launched GPT-4 in tests of language understanding. It also performed strongly in maths and coding assessments.

Co-founder and Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample said Mistral Large represents a major advance over earlier Mistral models. The company also launched a chatbot interface named Le Chat to allow users to interact with the system, similar to ChatGPT.  

The proprietary model boasts fluency in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, with a vocabulary exceeding 20,000 words. While Mistral’s first model was open-source, Mistral Large’s code remains closed like systems from OpenAI and other firms.  

Mistral AI received nearly $500 million in funding late last year from backers such as Nvidia and Andreessen Horowitz. It also recently partnered with Microsoft to provide access to Mistral Large through Azure cloud services.  

Microsoft’s investment of €15 million into Mistral AI is set to face scrutiny from European Union regulators who are already analysing the tech giant’s ties to OpenAI, maker of market-leading models like GPT-3 and GPT-4. The European Commission said Tuesday it will review Microsoft’s deal with Mistral, which could lead to a formal probe jeopardising the partnership.

Microsoft has focused most of its AI efforts on OpenAI, having invested around $13 billion into the California company. Those links are now also under review in both the EU and UK for potential anti-competitive concerns. 

Pricing for the Mistral Large model starts at $8 per million tokens of input and $24 per million output tokens. The system will leverage Azure’s computing infrastructure for training and deployment needs as Mistral AI and Microsoft partner on AI research as well.

While third-party rankings have yet to fully assess Mistral Large, the firm’s earlier Mistral Medium ranked 6th out of over 60 language models. With the latest release, Mistral AI appears positioned to challenge dominant players in the increasingly crowded AI space.

(Photo by Joshua Golde on Unsplash)

See also: Stability AI previews Stable Diffusion 3 text-to-image model

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The controversy arose as users on social media platforms flooded feeds with examples of Gemini generating pictures depicting racially-diverse Nazis, black medieval English kings, and other improbable scenarios.

Google Gemini Image generation model receives criticism for being 'Woke'.

Gemini generated diverse images for historically specific prompts, sparking debates on accuracy versus inclusivity. pic.twitter.com/YKTt2YY265

— Darosham (@Darosham_) February 22, 2024

Meanwhile, critics also pointed out Gemini’s refusal to depict Caucasians, churches in San Francisco out of respect for indigenous sensitivities, and sensitive historical events like Tiananmen Square in 1989.

In response to the backlash, Jack Krawczyk, the product lead for Google’s Gemini Experiences, acknowledged the issue and pledged to rectify it. Krawczyk took to social media platform X to reassure users:

For now, Google says it is pausing the image generation of people:

While acknowledging the need to address diversity in AI-generated content, some argue that Google’s response has been an overcorrection.

Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape and a16z, recently created an “outrageously safe” parody AI model called Goody-2 LLM that refuses to answer questions deemed problematic. Andreessen warns of a broader trend towards censorship and bias in commercial AI systems, emphasising the potential consequences of such developments.

Addressing the broader implications, experts highlight the centralisation of AI models under a few major corporations and advocate for the development of open-source AI models to promote diversity and mitigate bias.

Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, has stressed the importance of fostering a diverse ecosystem of AI models akin to the need for a free and diverse press:

Bindu Reddy, CEO of Abacus.AI, has similar concerns about the concentration of power without a healthy ecosystem of open-source models:

As discussions around the ethical and practical implications of AI continue, the need for transparent and inclusive AI development frameworks becomes increasingly apparent.

(Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash)

See also: Reddit is reportedly selling data for AI training

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According to OpenAI, ChatGPT’s memory will improve over time as users interact with it more. For example, ChatGPT could remember a user’s preferred meeting note format, tailor birthday card suggestions based on a user mentioning their child’s interests, or apply a user’s chosen tone and voice when drafting blog posts without needing to be told repeatedly.

Users remain in control of ChatGPT’s memory and can turn it off completely if desired. They can also selectively delete memories or clear all memories through ChatGPT’s settings. OpenAI states that memories evolve based on interactions and are not tied to specific conversations.

For enterprises and teams, OpenAI believes memory will lead to more efficient workflows by retaining preferences, styles, and past context. Account owners can disable memory for their entire organisation if needed.  

ChatGPT’s memory capabilities will also extend to third-party Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) built on top of the platform. Developers can choose whether to enable memory for their GPT bots.

OpenAI says they are assessing potential biases with memory and aim to avoid ChatGPT proactively remembering sensitive user details without explicit permission. Additional privacy and safety considerations are being evaluated during this early preview period.

The company plans to share more details around a broader rollout of ChatGPT’s memory capabilities soon. For now, only a small portion of free and paying ChatGPT users will have access.

(Photo by Anshita Nair on Unsplash)

See also: Google launches Gemini to replace Bard chatbot

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Unveiled in December, Bard was touted as a competitor to chatbots like ChatGPT but failed to impress in demos. Google staff even called the launch “botched” and slammed CEO Sundar Pichai.

Now rebranded as Gemini, Google says it represents the company’s “most capable family of models” for natural conversations. Two experiences are being launched: Gemini Advanced and a mobile app.

Gemini Advanced grants access to Ultra 1.0, billed by Google as its “largest and most capable state-of-the-art AI model.” In blind evaluations, third-party raters preferred Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0 over alternatives in complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, and creative collaboration.  

The AI can serve as a tutor by creating personalised lessons and quizzes. Developers are aided for trickier coding problems. Gemini Advanced is designed to spark ideas and strategise ways that creators can grow their audiences.

Google plans to expand Gemini Advanced’s capabilities over time with exclusive features like expanded multimodal interactions, interactive coding, deeper data analysis, and more. The service already supports over 150 countries in English and will add more languages soon.  

Access to Gemini Advanced is granted through a new $19.99 (£18.99) per month Google One AI Premium Plan, including a free two-month trial. Subscribers get the latest Google AI advancements plus 2TB of storage from the existing Premium plan.  

Google claims Gemini Advanced underwent extensive trust and safety checks before its launch, including external reviews, to mitigate issues around unsafe content and bias. More details are available in an updated technical report (PDF).

Lastly, Google launched new mobile apps on Android and iOS to access basic Gemini features on-the-go. Users can ask for help with images, tasks, and more while out-and-about. Over time, the plan is for Gemini to become a true personal AI assistant.

The Gemini mobile apps are now available in the US as a dedicated app on Android and in the Google app on iOS, supporting English conversations initially. Next week, the apps expand to Japan and Korea, followed by more countries and languages thereafter.

(Image Credit: Google)

See also: DeepMind framework offers breakthrough in LLMs’ reasoning

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The bot, created by “cloning” startup Delphi, aimed to support Phillips in his political campaign. However, this move directly contradicts OpenAI’s policies, leading to the suspension of the responsible developer.

The Washington Post reported that, despite displaying a disclaimer describing the nature of the chatbot to visitors, Dean.Bot’s purpose was clear: to engage with potential supporters and spread the candidate’s message.

OpenAI, in response, confirmed the suspension of the developer—emphasising the violation of their policies. This action follows OpenAI’s recent blog post outlining preventive measures against the misuse of its technology, specifically highlighting the prohibition of “chatbots impersonating candidates” in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.

Notably, OpenAI’s policies extend beyond this particular case—explicitly stating that applications for political campaigning and lobbying are not permitted.

In a crucial election year – not just in the US, but also in other Western democracies like the UK – it’s unsurprising that OpenAI is taking a firm stance against bots that could be seen to interfere and/or spread misinformation.

In response to the inquiry, Delphi initially removed ChatGPT from the bot and continued its operation using alternative open-source tools. However, OpenAI’s intervention prompted the ultimate suspension of the chatbot on Friday night.

Visitors to the Dean.Bot website are now told the chatbot is inaccessible due to “technical difficulties,” alongside a message that reads, “Apologies, DeanBot is away campaigning right now!”

(Image Credit: Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license)

See also: OpenAI launches GPT Store for custom AI assistants

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Since the announcement of custom ‘GPTs’ two months ago, OpenAI says users have already created over three million custom assistants. Builders can now share their creations in the dedicated store.

The store features assistants focused on a wide range of topics including art, research, programming, education, lifestyle, and more. OpenAI is highlighting assistants it deems most useful, including:

• Personal trail recommendations from AllTrails
• Searching academic papers with Consensus
• Expanding coding skills via Khan Academy’s Code Tutor
• Designing presentations with Canva, book recommendations from Books
• Maths help from CK-12 Flexi

OpenAI says making an assistant is simple and requires no coding knowledge. To share one, builders currently need to make it accessible to ‘Anyone with the link’ and verify their profile.

OpenAI introduced new usage policies and brand guidelines to ensure compliance. A review system combines human and automated checking before assistants are listed. Users can also flag concerning content.  

From Q1 2024, OpenAI will pay qualifying US-based builders for user engagement with their assistants. More details on exact payment criteria will be shared closer to launch.

For enterprise users, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Team plans for teams of all sizes. These provide access to a private store section containing company-specific assistants published securely to their workspace.

ChatGPT Enterprise customers will soon get admin controls for internal sharing and selecting which external assistants can be used by employees. As with all ChatGPT Team and Enterprise content, conversations are not used to improve OpenAI’s models.

Few apps have ever achieved the adoption rate of ChatGPT. OpenAI will be hoping its new stores and revenue opportunities will build upon this momentum by incentivising builders to create assistants that provide value to consumers and enterprises alike.

(Image Credit: OpenAI)

See also: OpenAI: Copyrighted data ‘impossible’ to avoid for AI training

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An email was sent to individuals enrolled as GPT Builders that urges them to ensure their GPT creations align with brand guidelines and advises them to make their models public:

The GPT Store was unveiled at OpenAI’s November developers conference, revealing the company’s plan to enable users to build AI agents using the powerful GPT-4 model. This feature is exclusively available to ChatGPT Plus and enterprise subscribers, empowering individuals to craft personalised versions of ChatGPT-style chatbots.

The upcoming store allows users to share and monetise their GPTs. OpenAI envisions compensating GPT creators based on the usage of their AI agents on the platform, although detailed information about the payment structure is yet to be disclosed.

Originally slated for a November launch, the GPT Store faced delays due to the company’s busy month—including the firing and subsequent rehiring of CEO Sam Altman. Initially pushed to December, the launch date experienced further postponements.

Now, with the official announcement of the imminent launch, users eagerly anticipate the opportunity to showcase and profit from their unique GPT creations.

(Photo by shark ovski on Unsplash)

See also: MyShell releases OpenVoice voice cloning AI

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The release comes on the heels of an expanded partnership with Google that provides Anthropic access to advanced processing hardware, enabling the substantial expansion of Claude’s context-handling capabilities.

With the ability to process lengthy documents like full codebases or novels, Claude 2.1 is positioned to unlock new potential across applications from contract analysis to literary study. 

The 200K token window represents more than just an incremental improvement—early tests indicate Claude 2.1 can accurately grasp information from prompts over 50 percent longer than GPT-4 before the performance begins to degrade.

Anthropic also touted a 50 percent reduction in hallucination rates for Claude 2.1 over version 2.0. Increased accuracy could put the model in closer competition with GPT-4 in responding precisely to complex factual queries.

Additional new features include an API tool for advanced workflow integration and “system prompts” that allow users to define Claude’s tone, goals, and rules at the outset for more personalised, contextually relevant interactions. For instance, a financial analyst could direct Claude to adopt industry terminology when summarising reports.

However, the full 200K token capacity remains exclusive to paying Claude Pro subscribers for now. Free users will continue to be limited to Claude 2.0’s 100K tokens.

As the AI landscape shifts, Claude 2.1’s enhanced precision and adaptability promise to be a game changer—presenting new options for businesses exploring how to strategically leverage AI capabilities.

With its substantial context expansion and rigorous accuracy improvements, Anthropic’s latest offering signals its determination to compete head-to-head with leading models like GPT-4.

(Image Credit: Anthropic)

See also: Paul O’Sullivan, Salesforce: Transforming work in the GenAI era

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