DuckDuckGo, the privacy-centric alternative web browser, has announced an interesting new feature. Search engine users can even filter out AI-generated images from their search results, giving them much more control over their browsing experience. Released on July 18, 2025, this feature uses artificial intelligence to empower users to manage the content they view while surfing the web.
This new setting — appropriately called “Hide AI-Generated Images” — can be turned on with a simple tap in the user’s search preferences. To activate the filter, users just have to click the filter option and select it within their user settings. We applaud DuckDuckGo for being bold with this initiative. The intent is to make it very difficult if not impossible for AI-generated content—which is increasingly taking over online searches—to appear.
Though valuable and effective, the filter has one sad caveat. As DuckDuckGo admits, it can’t prevent all AI-generated images from appearing in its search results. When it turned on the ad-blocking filter The Guardian declared that the filter relies on manually curated open-source blocklists. These lists include the ‘nuclear’ list from uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist. Though it can’t stop all AI-generated results, it has the potential to eliminate the vast majority of AI generated images you’ll encounter.
Users are demanding deeper customization at every turn in their digital journeys. This need has become acute, particularly amidst the rapid emergence of AI technologies. DuckDuckGo wants to put the user in control with simple, more effective tools that make their search results more personal and their browsing experience more private.
This implementation comes at a moment when users are increasingly concerned with the impact of AI on information quality. Consumers are much more attuned to the authenticity of what they’re consuming. With the advancing sophistication and scale of AI-generated content, the impetus for sound filters is more pressing than ever.
