06-21-2024 11:55 AM - last edited on 10-18-2024 02:19 PM by Jon
Hi folks,
In the next few days, we will start the Nightly experiment which provides easy access to AI services from the sidebar. This functionality is entirely optional, and it’s there to see if it’s a helpful addition to Firefox. It is not built into any core functionality and needs to be turned on by you to see it.
If you want to try the experiment, activate it via Nightly Settings > Firefox Labs (please see full instructions here).
We’d love to hear your feedback once you try out the feature, and we’re open to all your ideas and thoughts, whether it’s small tweaks to the current experience or big, creative suggestions that could boost your productivity and make accessing your favorite tools and services in Firefox even easier.
Thanks so much for helping us improve Firefox!
09-09-2024 05:33 AM
Also I really found the ChatGPT is bull**bleep** research paper interesting:
We argue that at minimum, the outputs of LLMs like ChatGPT are soft bull**bleep**: bull**bleep**–that is, speech or text produced without concern for its truth–that is produced without any intent to mislead the audience about the utterer’s attitude towards truth. We also suggest, more controversially, that ChatGPT may indeed produce hard bull**bleep**: if we view it as having intentions (for example, in virtue of how it is designed), then the fact that it is designed to give the impression of concern for truth qualifies it as attempting to mislead the audience about its aims, goals, or agenda.
09-08-2024 12:49 PM
there's no way you can mention AI without expecting such a dramatic negative pushback. i dont even want these services as an option you can toggle on or off - keep this garbage OUT
09-08-2024 12:58 PM
Please don't. AI is less than worthless. Associating with it beclowns yourself.
09-08-2024 01:00 PM
i figured it out, y'all— mozilla's trying to make the firefox icon real by using its flagship browser to set the planet on fire! i get it now!
but for real, do not do this. i absolutely despise when an organization backpedals on their core values and the disappointment in such acts compounds nigh-daily now. how does anyone in the tech sector sleep soundly at night anymore? (...oh, right. money.)
09-08-2024 01:03 PM
I did not consent to any of these companies scraping my website, nor do I think a browser an appropriate place for a stupid chatbot that boils oceans without doing anything particularly productive.
Please stop cramming """"AI"""" and other "features" no one wants into anything with a pulse and maybe start listening to people before introducing them.
09-08-2024 01:06 PM - edited 09-08-2024 01:07 PM
No AI ensh*ttification in Firefox please
09-08-2024 01:05 PM
Simply, I have yet to see the web browsing experience be improved for me through AI. It has been beneficial to companies building a LLM or selling data though. If Mozilla or someone else wants to give me $50,000/yr to use their browser with this feature that benefits them, not me, I will consider it.
09-08-2024 01:09 PM
how about hell no
09-08-2024 01:23 PM - edited 09-08-2024 01:25 PM
While I don't mind this feature, I feel like there needs to be some changes to respect those who don't want AI in their browser. Firstly, make it opt-in or easy to enable for those who want it. Although, it is pretty easy to enable/disable in the sidebar settings. A lot of people here are suggesting this, and I can agree with this. Secondly, allow users to add/remove models, since users might want to add their own AI models of choice. In my case, I am using ollama with openwebui and I had to change it manually in about:config. Which, some users might not want to risk changing settings in about:config to prevent themselves from ruining their browser.
But there are some things I disagree with the people who don't want this feature. I understand that they don't want AI in their browser, and they want more privacy. In fact, I didn't like AI when ChatGPT came out, and only tried it after half a year. I still prefer to not use AI for everything, as I knew from the very beginning that it's not perfect. I initially was also kind of against this feature, because I am kinda tired of AI being almost everywhere. However, the chatbot doesn't seem to waste system resources. The AI chatbot is pretty much like the sidebar apps that are seen in other browsers like Edge and Opera. Although, I can agree that it should've been extension by Mozilla instead of being built right into the browser. While I try not to have too many extensions on my browser, I feel like this would've been more acceptable as an extension rather than a native feature.
09-08-2024 01:25 PM
Hell NO!! keep ai away from everything. This AI “trend” needs to die, not get resurrected at every moment.
09-08-2024 01:34 PM
Can we please get a version of firefox without the AI-Bull**bleep**? I do understand that you need to include stuff like pocket to make money but I doubt that you got much money for that thing.
Some of your users do not want to have any AI related code on their systems.
09-08-2024 01:45 PM
Please don't do this. Don't ruin the last good internet browser with AI garbage.
09-08-2024 01:46 PM
This sucks, you guys are supposed to be better than this trend hopping garbage.
09-08-2024 01:46 PM
I think it'd be great to have a version that uses absolutely no AI chatbot. A version of Firefox that doesn't have the option at all.
09-08-2024 01:47 PM
Please don’t. You’ve been the most reliable web browser for years, why would you jump on the bandwagon for the technology that’s destroying the usability of the internet? You’re doing the worst possible thing for your brand credibility. This is akin to Kickstarter (successful only because it was the reliable way to pre-pay for products through secure means) jumping on crypto. Which it never did in the end, because it would have destroyed their brand credibility.
09-08-2024 01:54 PM
No. No. No. A thousand times no. Keep this AI bull**bleep** out of Firefox. God almight you'd think Mozilla of all folks would be able to read the room on this. Burn everything AI related at your company to the ground.
09-08-2024 01:56 PM
Kindly, did not add this. We don't any sort of AI within the browser. Thank you
09-08-2024 02:08 PM
I'm not interested. Official implementation of this will make me stop actively recommending Mozilla.
09-08-2024 02:10 PM
What the hell??? How do you look at everything happening around AI —the environmental cost, the incredibly bad and dangerous results it gives, the public outcry from artists, creators, and basically anyone with enough common sense and knowledge on the situation— and still decide "yeah i'll implement that"? Whoever came up with the idea is only second in terms of stupidity to who ever decided to actually go through with it.
No one wants that. Some people /may/ think they want it, but they have simply fallen for the lies of tech bros out there trying really hard to make it seem like AI is actually intelligent (it is not).
Mozilla Firefox is one of the only good alternatives to chromium, I love it, I love how you guys have been working to protect our privacy. Don't do this to us now, this is such a stupid decision, it will only make everything worse. Come on.
09-08-2024 02:12 PM
I say this with full honesty- no ai itergration please.
Mozilla is great as is. While there are many, the two main reasons why I switched to Firefox are;
Google Chrome as well as its company has continually degraded with time , with ruining its own search engine with ads rather than requested results, eating up storage space , and spying/training off its users. Never mind the constant changing tos.
But the final straw was the ai pushing-the GENERATIVE AI push for half hazard features rushed out to meet some arbitrary deadline. Google actually worked BETTER without its "ai integration." Gemini is terrible. Telling people to stick glue in sauce- this thing is tested! Its not safety-proofed! Then there's Bing,a giant turn off in general made worse with its own ai stuff. Duck duck go keeps turning its ai features on even when I turn them off manually! And no, I don't need Firefox to try and do better with that because I DON'T WANT AI FEATUES. Where am I supposed to go after this?
no amount of "its the future" can put down how bad this tech is most times. Aging is in the future, doesn't make it a good thing.
I'm just sick and tired of Ai. Its exhausting, I have ai fatigue. Its been shoved in my face in every aspect of life and advertising for months now. Almost every company is trying to cram it into their systems because its some trend. (Badly , I might add.)but I've seen the tech, I know how it works- its stuff we've already had except its more cumbersome and wastes more water.
I was actually, genuinely enjoying Mozilla Firefox and would like to continue to- without the ai tech. And I hope and pray I continue to do so. Because I'm tired.
09-08-2024 02:17 PM - edited 09-08-2024 02:34 PM
Absolutely not, AI rubbish has no business being baked into the browser itself.
Firefox's primary advantage is that it's not Google. By bandwagon-hopping onto the new corporate hotness despite the rampant plagiarism, the disinformation it produces, the absurd energy cost of these useless machines no one besides corporates want, and the general en****ification of the internet that AI slop is accelerating, you erode trust in Firefox and in Mozilla as an entity.
No one wants it, it offers no worthwhile benefit, it costs an absurd amount of energy for it to just churn out utter slop, and it's only being pushed in everyone's faces because businesses don't want to lose the money they bet on their new toy being "the future". If Mozilla is going the way of Google then what is the point of it existing?
Keep this rubbish out of Firefox, the cost of trust is not worth a year or two of "well we missed out on NFTs but maybe THIS one!" Shoving the plagiarism machine into Firefox is completely antithetical to why people favour Firefox in the first place.
09-08-2024 02:22 PM
Jumping in on the "please for the love of god don't" train. I deal with enough of this nonsense at work, I don't need it built directly into my browsers. I will find an alternative browser if you go down this route.
09-08-2024 02:25 PM
Firefox is already a system resource guzzling nightmare, now you want to make it even worse so it can learn to lie?
09-08-2024 02:25 PM
No.
09-08-2024 02:30 PM
No thank you. No one wants this stuff. Take it out and be a hero.
09-08-2024 02:38 PM
Don't put the pipe dream, energy wasting, buzzword, plagiarism laundering, worthless **bleep** on firefox. I use firefox because it's the least abusive browser. Don't do this bull**bleep**.
09-08-2024 02:52 PM
This absolutely isn't the right idea. Generative AI is extremely inaccurate nearly all of the time, and disproportionately energy intensive. In most cases it fails to do things that have already been done well without it. Most notably, it depends almost completely on scraping the data of others without consent. This is not the direction Firefox, Mozilla, anything should be going in.
09-08-2024 02:59 PM
I do not want this, I have zero interest in using AI features and zero interest in supporting companies that are buying into the hype. All you have to do is take a look around to see that AI is causing legal issues and costing more than it's helping. There is currently no ethical LLMs and I have a suspicion there never will be. Please, either back off, wait, or admit you don't care about the ethical side LLMs.
09-08-2024 03:01 PM
It's not just about the AI, which "no"
It's a very deep concern about the standard of decision-making at Mozilla that you would even give house room to the idiocy around AI
What other decisions are you making about FF with processes as broken, and frankly stupid, as that one?
09-08-2024 03:21 PM
this. to me jumping on the "AI" bandwagon indicates a lack of good sense and customer focus
09-08-2024 03:03 PM
Please no. Don’t want. Burn AI with fire.
09-08-2024 03:05 PM
Please don't, this would be utterly useless, and harmful to privacy.
09-08-2024 03:08 PM
Please do not use AI services for Firefox. I do not see how it would benefit you, and it certainly wouldn't benefit your users.
Frankly, describing yourself as "AI-Free" would be a good advertisement, given the insistence on other companies shoving this garbage everywhere.
09-08-2024 03:08 PM
I will switch to another browser if you force this on us.
09-08-2024 03:09 PM
Oh for the love of god can you just not.
09-08-2024 03:10 PM
Nice way to kill the browser and make it even LESS optimal to most machines. Is there anything the user is TRULY going to benefit with any of those additions? Or is this addition that literally no one asked for, just to appease to whatever weird AI company is probably giving you guys money?
09-08-2024 03:13 PM
Please don't do this. There's not a lot I want from a browse beyond competent loading of web pages. I don't need a lot of "advanced" ML or automation in the browser I use. Don't bloat Firefox with features we don't need.
09-08-2024 03:13 PM
noooooooooooooooo! please do not further enable the plagiarism/eco disaster machine!!!
09-08-2024 03:15 PM
09-08-2024 03:19 PM
I just installed the firefox web browser after more than a half a decade of not using it. if you add AI cludge, even optionally, I will uninstall it. If all you're offering is the same useless, wasteful, creepy, "AI" bullsh*t as the bigger web browsers I might as well just go with them.