Brave search engine adds privacy-focused AI - no Google or Bing needed

Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Move over Microsoft and Google, you're not the only ones amping up AI in your search engines. On Wednesday, privacy-minded Brave announced a new feature called "Answer with AI" designed to summarize the results when you ask a question or run a search. Although Brave unveiled an AI-based summary option last year, the company touts the new feature as a "significant step forward."

Like other AI-enabled search engines, Brave's Answer with AI compiles information from different sources into a single summarized answer for you to digest more easily. However, with its reputation for protecting your privacy, Brave boasts a few benefits unique to its AI search.

Also: The best secure browsers to protect your privacy online

In response to your question, Brave AI will provide answers, with sources cited, along with traditional search results. The answers generated are based on Brave's independent search engine, which -- Brave asserts -- is different from the largest real-time answer engines that rely -- directly or indirectly. -- on the Google or Bing search engines. 

Brave's Answer with AI is freely accessible through the Brave search engine on any desktop or mobile browser. Beyond English, the feature supports a variety of other languages.

Taking the AI for a spin is quick and easy. Type your query in the search field and then choose the option for Answer with AI. In response, Brave displays the summary at the top of the page, with its sources underneath and then the usual search results.

You can ask any type of general question. The AI is particularly suited for generating lists of items. For example, ask it to list all the films directed by Steven Spielberg or all the ingredients needed to make Key lime pie, and the AI will display the list in a bullet point or table format.

Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Brave also cited several different types of queries that you can aim at Answer with AI.

Navigational queries help you find a specific website.Informational queries are based on questions posed, such as "How do I find north when hiking?" or "What is the currency conversion rate between the US dollar and the UK pound?"Commercial queries help you find or research products and services.Transactional queries try to help you complete an action, such as buying a product.

Brave ventured into the world of AI in March 2023 with the release of an AI-powered Summarizer tool. Based on Brave's own large language models (LLMs), the Summarizer offers concise answers at the top of the search results page in response to a query. Brave has also said it trained its LLM to process multiple sources of information on the Web.

You can still conduct a regular search at Brave. But Answer with AI is seen as the next step.

"With the new Brave Search and its integration of Answer with AI, users get the best of both worlds: one place to get generative answers as well as up-to-date links, providing instant and highly relevant results," said Josep M. Pujol, chief of search at Brave.

"Unlike many search companies that are forced to rely on results from third parties, or others that solely offer answer engines, Brave now combines its index with AI to redefine the search experience and raise the bar on immediate pertinence in results, while preserving users' privacy."