When I search for an image online, I’m usually either looking for a reference or for accurate, copyright-free material that I can throw into a project before I post or present it. AI images don’t help me do either of those things. And on the off chance I do need an AI image, it’s not hard to generate one myself using a custom prompt. So I can’t think of a scenario where I’d want to see AI images in my search results. Luckily, it seems DuckDuckGo agrees with me.
The privacy-focused search engine and browser company recently announced a new feature for its Images tab that allows you to hide AI-generated images by default. While there are ways to hide AI from your Google searches, unless you install extensions, you have to go out of your way to use them every time you make a new search. With DuckDuckGo’s solution, it’s set-it-and-forget-it.
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Just go to the DuckDuckGo website, enter your search, click on the Images tab, then in the settings toolbar below the search bar, click on AI images and choose Hide from the dropdown menu. DuckDuckGo will then remember your settings for all future searches. Alternately, click on the hamburger menu in the top-right corner, click on Settings under Search, and toggle on Hide AI-Generated Images. Or, you can just start your search from noai.duckduckgo.com.
The company does warn you that its “block list is not exhaustive,” so a few AI-generated results might slip through the cracks, but I immediately noticed a big difference in my attempts. While searching for tabby kittens, I managed to cut a good four or five AI images off of the front page of results, including some with weird, cartoony proportions that wouldn’t really help me if I just wanted to know what a baby tabby looks like. It wasn’t quite as noticeable as the “baby peacock” example DuckDuckGo gave in its announcement, but it’s welcome assurance that what I’m seeing is probably real.
DuckDuckGo says its block list for hiding AI generated images relies on open-source work, including the uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist. This is a manually curated list that targets 1,000+ sites known for posting AI generated content, so while it won’t catch everything, it’s a great start. It’s also helpful in that it will even work if an image has not necessarily been watermarked as AI.
While having a built-in AI blocklist does make DuckDuckGo attractive for AI skeptics, it’s worth noting that DuckDuckGo is not necessarily anti-AI, and in fact offers a few AI tools of its own. However, in its announcement for the new image filtering feature, DuckDuckGo said it is committed to making its forays into AI “private, useful, and optional.”
