On Thursday, DuckDuckGo, the company behind the privacy-focused search engine, announced its AI features were out of beta, with a few upgrades. These features are optional so you don't have to use them if you don't want to, and they're also free to use.One of those features grants access to multiple AI chatbots through Duck.ai. This feature was originally called DuckDuckGo AI Chat when it launched in beta in 2024, and it gave you access to popular chatbots like OpenAI's GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku and Meta Llama 3.In a blog post by CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo says it has implemented upgraded models of these popular chatbots into Duck.ai, which now gives you access to OpenAI's GPT-4o mini and o3-mini models, Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku and the open-source models Meta Llama 3.3 and Mistral Small 3. Duck.ai also saves chats locally on your device in its Recent Chats section so you can come back to a chat later and pick up where you left off. DuckDuckGoAccording to a 2024 survey from advisory firm KPMG, more than half of people surveyed are "extremely or very" excited about AI tools like these. But about 63% of people said they are concerned about privacy and cybersecurity issues when using these tools.These concerns aren't unfounded. Most AI chatbots collect and store user data, including your prompts and uploads. Cybersecurity company Cobalt writes online that this data could be vulnerable to misuse by cybercriminals.DuckDuckGo said it strips personal metadata from its chatbot chats so they can't be tied back to you, and recent chats are only stored locally on your device, except as needed by providers to respond to prompts. The company said it has agreements in place with providers to limit how data can be used for training and to delete chats they receive within 30 days.Another DuckDuckGo feature now out of beta includes an AI-powered answer feature called Assist, originally called DuckAssist. This feature is an addition to the search engine's existing Instant Answers feature. When Instant Answers entered beta in 2023 it mostly pulled answers from Wikipedia, but now, DuckDuckGo says this feature pulls answers from across the internet. DuckDuckGoThese releases come at the same time that Google announced the expansion of AI overviews in Search, as well as an AI Mode that uses Gemini 2.0. AI features are being increasingly integrated into products and services, including Gemini showing up across Google's suite of tools, and as model providers continue to race toward more efficient models that can complete a larger variety of tasks.However, we still have to be careful with these answers. According to an article from Tshilidzi Marwala, the rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, these answers are predictions based on a given set of expected outcomes, not statements of fact like we would expect from an informed person."The model's predictions can be entirely correct within the scope of its data," Marwala wrote online, cautioning that "[if] these systems rely solely on accurate but incomplete data, they risk reinforcing biases and ignoring critical human factors, resulting in unfair or ineffective decisions AI accuracy is not necessarily the truth!"DuckDuckGo said in the announcement that it recognizes AI answers can have errors, so sources are displayed alongside Assist answers. The company also said it has some precautions in place to avoid pulling answers from spam sites, opinion pieces and satirical content. DuckDuckGoThese AI features are integrated into DuckDuckGo and are free to use without an account. There is a daily chat limit within Duck.ai, but the company said it shouldn't be an issue for normal day-to-day use. DuckDuckGo wrote online that it's exploring a paid service to give people access to more chat models as well as a higher chat limit.You can try these new features for free in the DuckDuckGo browser, and you can try the chatbot at Duck.ai. You can also access the chatbot in the DuckDuckGo browser by clicking the chat icon in the top-right corner of the browser window.And if you don't want to use these AI features, you don't have to. If you go to DuckDuckGo's search settings, you can turn the chat features off completely. You can limit how often Assist provides you with an answer to often, sometimes, on-demand or never. DuckDuckGoFor more on DuckDuckGo, here's what to know about the privacy-focused search engine and five reasons you should switch to it. Watch this: How to Get the Best Answers From an AI Chatbot 04:09