DuckDuckGo Launches Private AI Voice Chat on Duck.ai With Encrypted Audio Streaming

DuckDuckGo adds private real-time AI voice chat to Duck.ai - 9to5Mac

For those who choose to use AI as part of their search workflow, the feature is rolling out for free with daily limits, with higher caps for DuckDuckGo subscribers. Here are the details. Last March, DuckDuckGo announced Duck.ai, its chatbot platform that offers a private way to search or talk to 3rd-party LLMs from frontier AI labs such as OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Mistral. As the year progressed, Duck.ai got new features, such as image generation, which we covered here. Today, the platform released yet another feature: voice mode. It follows the same privacy principles as the rest of the company's tools and features, meaning that chats are anonymized by DuckDuckGo and never used to train the underlying AI. DuckDuckGo explains that OpenAI is the model provider for all voice chats, but that the streamed audio "is not stored by DuckDuckGo or by OpenAI (...) after the chat ends." The company also says that "OpenAI is contractually limited in how they can use voice chat data to what is necessary to perform their services." Here's a bit more, directly from DuckDuckGo: When you start a voice chat, Duck.ai connects you to an OpenAI model through an encrypted relay connection that we cannot decrypt. Your microphone audio is streamed in real time to OpenAI, where the model listens, transcribes what you say, and generates both a spoken and text response. Duck.ai's voice chat is currently available on most browsers, except Firefox, for which support is "coming soon." The company also says that while every user is subject to daily limits, subscribers have a higher cap than in the free version. Given the recent pushback on AI-based features, DuckDuckGo wants to make sure users understand that this, alongside every other AI feature to come out of its labs, is entirely optional. And even for users who decide to use Duck.ai's voice mode and change their minds later, they can disable it from Duck.ai Settings. To learn more about Duck.ai's new real-time voice mode and go deeper into the company's data handling policies for the feature, follow this link.

DuckDuckGo Adds AI Voice Chat to Duck.ai With Privacy Protections

DuckDuckGo has announced new voice chat capabilities for Duck.ai, the private AI chatbot platform it launched last March. The new feature lets users have real-time voice conversations with large language models (LLMs) through an encrypted relay connection. OpenAI provides the LLMs that power voice chats, but DuckDuckGo says that neither it nor OpenAI stores any audio after conversations end. "Voice chats in Duck.ai are private, anonymized by us, and never used to train the underlying AI," the company said in its announcement. OpenAI is also contractually limited in how it can use voice chat data. Here's how DuckDuckGo describes the service: DuckDuckGo protects your audio stream and voice data in several ways, to ensure it can only be accessed by OpenAI, (the model provider for voice chats) and only for the purpose of responding to your prompts: The feature works in most browsers except for Firefox, for which support is still in the works, according to the company. Voice chat is free within daily limits and doesn't require an account, while subscribers ($10/month) get higher daily limits in addition to DuckDuckGo VPN access, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration. Users can disable voice chat at any time through Duck.ai's settings if they change their mind about using the feature. Duck.ai also offers access to non-voice models from OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Mistral.

DuckDuckGo's AI lets you talk to it without giving up privacy

DuckDuckGo's Duck.ai voice chat is now live, promising no recording, no storage, and no training. DuckDuckGo's Duck.ai voice chat is now live, giving you a hands-free way to talk to its AI while it leans on a familiar promise, your audio won't be recorded or stored, and it won't be used for training. Voice is creeping into every AI app, and it usually comes with a quiet tradeoff, more data flowing somewhere you can't see. Duck.ai voice chat is aimed at people who want spoken answers without feeling like they're feeding another voice dataset. Recommended Videos The rollout is real, but a few practical bits still take digging. DuckDuckGo says voice chat works in its own browser and most other browsers, with Firefox support listed as coming soon. It also applies daily usage limits, but doesn't publish a number. The promise is the product Duck.ai voice chat runs at Duck.ai. Turn it on, grant mic permission, and you can start speaking and get spoken replies back. DuckDuckGo is also leaning on plumbing details to back up the privacy pitch. It says your mic audio is streamed using WebRTC through an encrypted relay, then processed to generate a response. The company says it doesn't store your voice. Limits and tradeoffs you should know The privacy claim is clear, but voice is still touchy. A single question can include names, places, or other personal details, and your voice itself can be identifying. There's also the usage cap. DuckDuckGo confirms voice chats have a daily limit, and subscribers get higher limits than free users. It says it won't spell out the exact method to prevent abuse. It also warns that VPNs or being on a cellular network can sometimes make you hit the limit sooner. A practical way to try it If you test Duck.ai voice chat, treat the first run like a quick checkup. Look at the permissions it requests, how easy it is to shut off, and whether it behaves the same on your phone and your laptop. For now, keep sensitive topics out of voice mode and use it for low-stakes tasks where convenience is the main win. If DuckDuckGo adds clearer disclosures on providers and handling, that's the moment to reassess whether it's ready for more personal conversations.