Fed up with AI slop? Here’s how DuckDuckGo can help

If you’ve had enough of AI-generated images filling up your search results, then the DuckDuckGo search engine is here to help.

The Pennsylvania-based company recently announced an easy way to filter out AI-generated images from search results on its privacy-focused search engine.

To try it, simply make a search on DuckDuckGo and then head to the Images tab. You’ll see a new drop-down option that says, “AI images: show.” Select it and then select “AI images: hide,” and then voilà, your page of images will appear slop-free!

Alternatively — and this is a neat touch — if you want the feature auto-enabled on DuckDuckGo’s search engine, all you need to do is bookmark noai.duckduckgo.com. This page also hides DuckDuckGo’s AI-assisted summaries and AI chat icons.

“Our philosophy about AI features is ‘private, useful, and optional,’” DuckDuckGo said in a post on X announcing the new feature. “Our goal is to help you find what you’re looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life — or if you want any at all.”

The company said that its new filter blocks AI-generated images by using community-made lists that identify known AI image sources. It checks images against these lists and then hides from its search results the ones flagged as AI-generated.

It added that while it won’t catch 100% of AI-generated results, “it will greatly reduce the number of AI-generated images you see.”

DuckDuckGo’s attempt to give people more control over the presence of AI-generated images in search results is a notable effort by the company toward preserving the integrity and usability of its search engine as the internet becomes increasingly filled with content created by AI tools.

It’s great that DuckDuckGo is listening to user gripes about the proliferation of synthetic images, with the new feature sure to prove popular among folks keen for real images in their results. 

Now, if only the social media sites would follow suit …