68 votes

DuckDuckGo’s anti-AI sunglasses won’t spy on anyone

19 comments

  1. [7]
    Asinine
    Link
    At Knockaround, we never stop innovating. So as AI glasses started taking over, we designed sunglasses in partnership with DuckDuckGo and asked ourselves: what could possibly beat AI glasses with...

    Humor publication The Onion published a sly post about the DuckDuckGo sunglasses, sharing comical quotes from made-up consumers. “0/10, useless for perverts,” says one fictional person. Says another, “Guess I’ll have to violate people’s privacy the old-fashioned way: From the bushes.”

    At Knockaround, we never stop innovating. So as AI glasses started taking over, we designed sunglasses in partnership with DuckDuckGo and asked ourselves: what could possibly beat AI glasses with cameras? Then, in a stroke of genius, it hit us: no AI. In a second aha moment: no cameras either. So we did something radical. We made some Normal F*ing Sunglasses.

    38 votes
    1. [6]
      chocobean
      Link Parent
      Not only was I glad to read an article about an ad, I also willingly watched a video ad. And then gleefully read more ads with the Onion partnership. DDG should give out their logo + anti AI...

      Not only was I glad to read an article about an ad, I also willingly watched a video ad. And then gleefully read more ads with the Onion partnership.

      DDG should give out their logo + anti AI stickers for everyone to stick on all their analog stuff next.

      16 votes
      1. [5]
        zipf_slaw
        Link Parent
        Kind of odd to do so, since they use AI summaries on their search returns.

        DDG should give out their logo + anti AI stickers

        Kind of odd to do so, since they use AI summaries on their search returns.

        5 votes
        1. [4]
          chocobean
          Link Parent
          That can be turned off from options, please do so

          That can be turned off from options, please do so

          8 votes
          1. [3]
            tomorrow-never-knows
            Link Parent
            The shit of it is, a large proportion of search results are clearly from AI slop sites so the search summary can actually be pretty handy in cutting through some of that crap, especially for...

            The shit of it is, a large proportion of search results are clearly from AI slop sites so the search summary can actually be pretty handy in cutting through some of that crap, especially for rudimentary queries. It is very much a case of a solution we shouldn't need for a problem that shouldn't exist, but the internet has some deep-rooted issues now that may take a long time to tackle, if even possible at this point.

            4 votes
            1. Grenno
              Link Parent
              The summary's links to their sources (Speaking to Google's, I don't know about DDG's) are really suspicious to me sometimes. I'll check their source and its a single comment from some guy sitting...

              The summary's links to their sources (Speaking to Google's, I don't know about DDG's) are really suspicious to me sometimes. I'll check their source and its a single comment from some guy sitting at like +5 in some random subreddit talking about a very specific topic that was posted.

              Is that all it really takes to just show up there, 1 moderately voted comment that is adjacent to whatever the topic the AI summary thinks it is? That seems very worrisome in the age of misinformation.

              3 votes
            2. chocobean
              Link Parent
              I almost never do any opinion or recipe search without tagging before:2023 now.... It's plain sad.

              I almost never do any opinion or recipe search without tagging before:2023 now.... It's plain sad.

              2 votes
  2. arch
    Link
    For what it's worth, these glasses don't seem to be made by the same company that works with Meta to make their smart glasses (EssilorLuxottica). They own a shocking number of brands, it can be...

    For what it's worth, these glasses don't seem to be made by the same company that works with Meta to make their smart glasses (EssilorLuxottica). They own a shocking number of brands, it can be extremely hard to tell when you're buying their products. As far as manufacturing goes, I can't say for sure if they use the same factories or not. It certainly doesn't matter from a privacy standpoint for dumb glasses, but as a form of protest I find it is more effective to not fund the companies that are disregarding our privacy.

    12 votes
  3. [3]
    Deely
    (edited )
    Link
    Video ad (included in the article) for DuckDuckGo sunglasses just beatiful, beautiful I tell you!

    Video ad (included in the article) for DuckDuckGo sunglasses just beatiful, beautiful I tell you!

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      Lia
      Link Parent
      Direct link to video ad on YouTube "We're obsEEEEssed with innovation" got a chuckle out of me :D

      Direct link to video ad on YouTube

      "We're obsEEEEssed with innovation" got a chuckle out of me :D

      13 votes
      1. mild_takes
        Link Parent
        I didn't realize how cliche that line was until now. Perfect satire.

        I didn't realize how cliche that line was until now. Perfect satire.

        6 votes
  4. [7]
    Tiraon
    Link
    It is kind of funny but I fail to see the point beyond that. Personally I wish they just took their search engine seriously as it is nearly useless, on the level of Google these days.

    It is kind of funny but I fail to see the point beyond that.

    Personally I wish they just took their search engine seriously as it is nearly useless, on the level of Google these days.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      AnEarlyMartyr
      Link Parent
      I mean part of that just seems to be the internet anymore. Maybe Kagi is better (I haven’t tried it) but I suspect part of it is that the internet is just overrun with ads or ai slop ads or just...

      I mean part of that just seems to be the internet anymore. Maybe Kagi is better (I haven’t tried it) but I suspect part of it is that the internet is just overrun with ads or ai slop ads or just straight ai slop.

      9 votes
      1. Tiraon
        Link Parent
        That might explain the low quality of the results. It does not explain the results containing one entry in any way relevant to the query and the rest of the page being random noise having maybe a...

        That might explain the low quality of the results. It does not explain the results containing one entry in any way relevant to the query and the rest of the page being random noise having maybe a a single term from it at best.

        The whole query is important. Results for part of it are worse than useless.,

        I despise search engines that "interpret" the query. It makes iteration and exploration nearly impossible.

        3 votes
    2. [3]
      Englerdy
      Link Parent
      As a daily DDG user I'm curious when you last tried using it. About 3 years ago I found Google's results becoming basically useless for most of my queries and switched to DDG. I've found it...

      As a daily DDG user I'm curious when you last tried using it. About 3 years ago I found Google's results becoming basically useless for most of my queries and switched to DDG. I've found it generally grabs pages that are a more literal match to what I typed and less of an interpretation with a heavy slant towards product pages and advertisements which is what Google's results were feeling like. I'm not saying DDG is phenomenal by any means, but it feels like search engine results have just gotten mediocre and polluted but SEO slop even before AI generated SEO slop was possible.

      I also like that I can use !bangs to quickly divert my search to another engine if DDG isn't serving up what I wanted. So if I look through the results of a search and don't find what I'm looking for, I just quickly append !g, hit enter, and see what Google has. Pretty useful on that front for me and I still use Google when it's useful, it just doesn't feel like a great default anymore.

      6 votes
      1. [2]
        Tiraon
        Link Parent
        I actually use DuckDuckGo regularly as well as different search engines, just trying to find one that deigns to give me a usefull result that day. Basically any kind of too specific search or a...

        I actually use DuckDuckGo regularly as well as different search engines, just trying to find one that deigns to give me a usefull result that day.

        Basically any kind of too specific search or a search that is not popular enough gets forcibly broadened, making it useless. There might in a given search engine be one or two results that are in any way relevant with no quarantees on their quality.

        Original Google was popular because it surfaced relevant results with just enough interpretation. Modern search engines put the query into a blender and spit out some kind of averaged out nonsense.

        Personally I would even be okay with that given a few simple conditions which could be summed up as put most actually relevant results first and very clearly delineate the different levels of guesses.

        1 vote
        1. Englerdy
          Link Parent
          Gotcha, thanks for clarifying.

          Gotcha, thanks for clarifying.

          1 vote
    3. Asinine
      Link Parent
      Which do you recommend/use?

      Personally I wish they just took their search engine seriously as it is nearly useless, on the level of Google these days.

      Which do you recommend/use?

      2 votes
  5. mattsayar
    Link
    This ad is hilarious, and very on-brand for DDG with its privacy-centered messaging. That said, I'm a happy smart glasses user and don't love the growing negative sentiment. The glasses are great...

    This ad is hilarious, and very on-brand for DDG with its privacy-centered messaging. That said, I'm a happy smart glasses user and don't love the growing negative sentiment. The glasses are great for hands-free recording and grandma loves the videos I send her when I'm playing with the kids. Having always-connected headphones is a game-changer for listening to music on the go or watching videos without disturbing people around me. It seems younger generations love this tech so I don't think it will really go away.

    2 votes