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As generative AI continues to reshape how journalists research, verify facts and craft stories, the selection of AI tools that we make available in newsrooms is more important than ever. Once a core staple for many newsrooms, Google Search has devolved into a dysfunctional dumpster fire… with ads. It’s so bad that researchers now study its decline.
While Google tries to remember what a search engine is supposed to do, competitors like Perplexity, with its AI-powered search, have gained traction for its speed and real-time data aggregation. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search, launched in late 2024, has also emerged as a search competitor. But a March 2025 Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) study found AI search engines collectively provide incorrect answers to more than 60% of queries, with Perplexity’s controversial practices sparking legal action from publishers. These accuracy and ethical concerns make Duck.ai, DuckDuckGo’s new privacy-first AI search tool, a compelling alternative that better aligns with the needs of many newsrooms.
Here’s why I think Duck.ai is the smarter choice for news-based publishers.
1. Ethical Data Practices: Respecting Publishers And Privacy
Perplexity’s reputation in the news industry is thin at best. The Columbia Journalism Review study provided concrete evidence that Perplexity ignored robots.txt directives—it correctly identified all ten excerpts from paywalled National Geographic articles despite being explicitly blocked, and The New York Times (which blocks Perplexity) was still its top-referred news site with 146,000 visits in January 2025. Major publishers like The Wall Street Journal, Wired and Forbes have accused Perplexity of repurposing paywalled articles and fabricating