DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused browser and search engine, is helping users avoid having to wade through the enormous amount of AI slop on the internet by allowing the option to filter out AI-generated images.
Announced last week, the browser now includes a new ‘AI Images’ dropdown menu to further filter your image search results if you’d rather not see any that were generated by AI. This is in line with the company’s policy regarding AI features, being “private, useful, and optional.”
DuckDuckGo away, AI images
New setting: hide AI-generated images in DuckDuckGo
Our philosophy about AI features is “private, useful, and optional.” 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. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/pTolmsEQlQ
— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) July 14, 2025
The new filter isn’t foolproof, unfortunately. The company says it relies on “manually curated open-source blocklists, including the “nuclear” list, provided by uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist. Don’t expect it to catch every AI-generated image in existence, even those that seem to be obviously AI-generated.
Read More: Nobody is building AI for you
A quick search for ‘sad cats’ will show you just how many can slip through the cracks, with the filter only removing the one circled in red in our results, when there are clearly many more, like the very first image.
It might be flawed, but it’s a step in the right direction and will likely (read: hopefully) improve with time. If only there was a way to get this onto every social media platform.
