No. DDG has done no such thing. They've provided a shortcut (via a dedicated URL) for those who want to avoid AI answers in search. They are absolutely still providing AI answers as defined by user settings (defaulting to "Sometimes"). Just not via this specific URL.

This is one outcome of their latest marketing campaign.

The opposite variant https://yesai.duckduckgo.com/ strongly advertises AI answers.

Not the title (DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind), this is a link for searching ddg without AI answers (as a setting).

Apparently related [flagged] Are You YES AI or No AI? (23 points, 37 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46680261

I've vastly reduced my direct search use after LLMs showed up. I still do dumb searches, but anything remotely resembling research is much easier directly through AI. Google nailed AI with Gemini, leaving DDG in a uncomfortable place... And I say that as someone who has DDG as his default engine.

It doesn't matter what I search for on ddg; Sumerian statues, Hubble Deep Field, parasites in South America - I always get highly irrelevant local results for stupid shit, eg hotels, restaurants and things too bizarre to remember.

I've lost track of any benefit for ddg. What's it supposed to be good for?

Long Live Scroogle. Scroogle is dead. And I think the Internet is begging for nembutal. It's become a series of tubes, stuffed with Amazon affiliate links and Black Rock blog spam.

I don't need AI to summarize spam.

I had actually switched to startpage because of the slop at the top of all ddg search results

back now

A more realistic answer is that they probably can't afford it. They don't quite make money on the same scale as Google.