A bookmarklet to quickly debloat Duck.ai

[charger8232@lemmy.ml]

About

Duck.ai is one of the few online places to chat with AI privately. Self-hosting your own AI model is a better option, but not everybody has the hardware for it. DuckDuckGo has made deals with the model providers to keep your chats private, so it's an easy option to recommend.

If you're like me, you probably clear your cookies a lot (or always browse in incognito). This means that any time you visit Duck.ai, you have to set all your settings again. One solution is to set Duck.ai as an exception to your browser data deletion, but that makes me uneasy. After getting fed up setting my preferred settings each time, I wanted to see if I could automate the process.

The Bookmarklet

Bookmarklets are essentially bookmarks in your bookmarks bar that, when clicked, run your own JavaScript code on whichever page you're visiting. This was a neat trick that some of my classmates used to edit pages when the Inspect Element was disabled on school computers.

I wrote a short bookmarklet that will automatically set my preferred settings in Duck.ai:

javascript:{
	const settings = {
		'aiChatPromptSuggestions': '{"hideSuggestions":true}',
		'aichatPromoDismissal': '{"promosDismissed":"9999-99-99"}',
		'duckaiCanUseApproxLocation': 'false',
		'duckaiSidebarCollapsed': 'true',
		'duckduckgo_settings': '{"description":"Each key is a setting documented in https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/settings/params/","kdcm":"6","kdcs":"0"}',
		'isRecentChatsOn': '"0"',
		'preferredDuckaiModel': '"6"',
	};
	
	let keys = Object.keys(settings);
	keys.forEach(key => {
		const value = settings[key];
		localStorage.setItem(key, value);
	});
	
	location.reload();
}

How To Use

(Steps may vary between browsers)

1. Copy-paste the bookmarklet code above (including the part that says javascript:)
2. Right click on the bookmarks bar in your browser
3. Select "Add page..."
4. In the field that says "URL", paste the code you copied
5. Name the bookmarklet whatever you want, for example: Debloat Duck.ai
6. Click "Save"
7. Visit Duck.ai (which redirects to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=DuckDuckGo+AI+Chat&ia=chat&duckai=1)
   You must visit this page before running the bookmarklet, because bookmarklets can only run code on the page you're currently visiting.
8. Click on the bookmarklet you just created. This will run the code.

You should now have a distraction free, private chat.

Explanation

Duck.ai stores its settings in the browser's "local storage". If you open the Inspect Element (either by right clicking on the page and clicking "Inspect" or by pressing F12) and navigate to Application > Local Storage > https://duckduckgo.com/ you will see a list of settings and their corresponding values.

By default, these settings are a tad too distracting for my taste. The bookmarklet I made does the following:

1. Hides prompt suggestions
2. Dismisses the promo by setting the shown date to something impossible in the future
3. Disables using approximate location for responses
4. Collapses the sidebar
5. duckduckgo_settings doesn't actually do much, and the values there are, in fact, not documented on this page
6. Disables chat history
7. Sets the preferred model to Mistral Small 3, which is open source and has low moderation.

You can set your preferred settings before running the bookmarklet and edit the bookmarklet code according to your own settings.

The code then iterates through these settings, and sets each one. Then, finally, reloads the page to apply the settings.

Updates

This project is far too small to make an entire repository for it, so I will try to just update this post with any new code. For example, duckaiCanUseApproxLocation is a new setting that was added in the last few days.

I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did!

Here is a before and after:

[steaksneak@retrolemmy.com]

Great thank you for this, I use duck.ai a lot!

[hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org]

nice script sir, tysm

[ulrich@feddit.org]

You can load the script into violentmonkey (minus the last line because it kept refreshing the page) and it's applied automatically that way. You can also submit it to GreasyFork to make it searchable.

Personally I find chat models that don't provide sources to be completely useless, that's why I use Perplexity (occasionally).

[brobot9000@lemmy.world]

I absolutely hate having to disable the Ai every time I search because I don’t want to save their cookies or cache.

Anyway thats this could be modified to disable their Ai permanently for someone that only browses in incognito mode?

They absolutely need to make it opt in and disabled by default.

[slackness@lemmy.ml]

If you break the law or violate these Terms when using Duck.ai and we get sued, you may have to take responsibility.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless DuckDuckGo, its affiliates, employees, and any other agents from and against any claims, losses, and expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising from or relating to your use of Duck.ai, including your subsequent use of any Outputs, your breach of these Terms, or violation of applicable law.

I don't understand how this is possible if this is a private, account free service.

Overall, I don't get what ddg gets out of this very expensive to offer service. Which means I don't teust its a way to privately use LLMs.

[charger8232@lemmy.ml]

You can add &kbe=0 to the end of the URL when you search to disable it. If you know how to add custom search engines this is the easiest way.

Otherwise, you can add "kbe":"0" as a value inside the duckduckgo_settings parameter in the bookmarklet, like this:

		'duckduckgo_settings': '{"description":"Each key is a setting documented in https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/settings/params/","kdcm":"6","kdcs":"0","kbe":"0"}',

Cheers!

[charger8232@lemmy.ml]

I don’t understand how this is possible if this is a private, account free service.

It's likely there in case (for example) you, in court, testified to using Duck.ai for illegal purposes. DuckDuckGo themselves would not be the ones dragging you to court, but they could get caught in the crossfire, so they want to avoid liability.

Overall, I don’t get what ddg gets out of this very expensive to offer service. Which means I don’t teust its a way to privately use LLMs.

These are the possible motives for each side:

DuckDuckGo gets to add AI to their service, which attracts users. DuckDuckGo is paid in sponsored results at the top of searches, so more users means more money.

The AI providers are willing to provide free/cheap service as a sort of sponsorship to attract users of their own. If you are using GPT on Duck.ai and decide you like it, you may be incentivized to use OpenAI's own service to chat with the better model, since the models on Duck.ai are not top of the line. It's the same thought process behind free tiers in services.

Both sides win in this arrangement.

[ordinarylove@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

gee that doesn't sound secure or smart to use at all

[rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social]

I used the block element feature of Ublock, but I don't know if that works in incognito or if it blocks their cookies. I also grew tired of having to disable it but didn't consider the ramifications of making it invisible to me

[rvtv95xbeo@sh.itjust.works]

Both sides win in this arrangement.

What about the third party (you the user), and fourth party (everyone whose creativity was fed into the machines, and everyone who has to accept your LLM generated slop like it's useful and/or contributing to the conversation)

[rvtv95xbeo@sh.itjust.works]

You can set uBlock to run in incognito tabs, so it'll hold if you let it.

[xtl@sopuli.xyz]

I think you can ask duck for sources or links each time you want them, but it would make some sense for a search engine in particular to give the links in any case.

[ulrich@feddit.org]

You can't:

I don't have real-time browsing capabilities or access to specific databases to provide a direct source for the information.

The answer it provided me prior to this, I know from actual research, was completely wrong.