Share your feedback on the AI services experiment in Nightly

[asafko]

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!

[BunBunVelvet]

Please don't or at least make it extremely forthright and easy to cope out of. With legit everything forcing me to try AI or to use AI even down to my OS of microsoft trying to force me to use copilot and stuff, I don't want Firefox to start doing the same thing. I just want the browser to be a browser like I want microsoftOS to be an OS and not an assistant. I'd rather not have to try and find another browser that has so far respected me and my time like firefox because this was forced.

[thegranddewru]

C’mon guys! Seriously? It’s not real, it doesn’t work, and it uses an unacceptable amount of energy/resources. Please no AI

[ashteranic]

Generally, I find the idea that Mozilla is cramming LLMs into Firefox to be abhorrent.

Generative AI and LLMs are not a direction the industry at large, or Firefox specifically, should be taking, for a variety of reasons:

* Accuracy and utility: LLMs are rapidly being discovered as *not* providing any value, and often providing incorrect results. A recent study by the Australian government found that LLMs are poor at summarizing content, one of the alleged key features of LLMs: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/09/australian-government-trial-finds-ai-is-much-worse-than-humans-at.... 

* LLM training and operations is having a substantially negative environmental impact, causing many tech companies to completely overshoot their climate goals https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16863. Google’s emissions are up 48% in five years, while Microsoft’s are up 30% between 2020 and 2023.

* LLMs and various training-based AI in general frequently results in biased results, such as reinforcing racism. 

* LLMs are contributing to an increase in the spread of phishing and other types of attacks, and frequently has confidential information ingested into it by users who do so unknowingly.

* LLMs are largely built on the backs of underpaid labor of workers across the world, many of whom come away from the experience traumatized.

* LLMs are heavily dependent on completely flouting copyright law, and are frequently criticized for outright stealing content used for training.

It is my strongly held opinion that installing LLM-based "AI" into Firefox runs counter to the Mozilla Foundation's Manifesto. LLMs reinforce biases, and contributes to the dire climate emergency we're all living through right now. As a technology base, I believe it is antithetical to the Mozilla Foundation's stated goals, and if it isn't, the manifesto should be updated so that it becomes so.

[midgy]

This is such a great comment! I'm really glad to see some additional sources on this topic.

[voxmyriad]

AI in Firefox is absolutely unnecessary. The reason I have been sticking with Firefox for so long is because Mozilla has not moved forward on tech fads but has kept providing a really solid product in the face of "progress for the sake of progress." I would hate to see this tech fad be the reason Firefox starts to lose the market share it does have.

[sazinata]

please do not add AI to firefox

[Freyakitten]

Absolutely not. For AI to work, it needs to have access to what I have access to, and that means my personal information and my clients' personal information. I am not filling out a breach of privacy notification form every time I log in to a client's finances. 

[blipblop]

Nobody wants this.
I use this browser to NOT have AI hot garbage everywhere I look.
Besides it's a waste of energy, time, and money for something that just a "Your cousin told you a fact they think is true when you're little, but actually it's not and won't find out till corrected,' machine.
Nor am I a fan of scrapping people's data, work, art, and etc without permission just to make this work. There is no such thing as 'Ethical AI'.

[baskinglobster]

Not only no, not only hell no, but **bleep** no

[aimlessnovelist]

Please don't. This is literally the only browser without it anymore and unless you add a setting to disable it ENTIRELY, I will have to switch to a new and probably not well-known browser. AI is unnecessary and does not need to be built directly into anyone's browser. Please do not.

[dousoj]

Please DO NOT add AI to Firefox. AI as it is right now is: (1) based on stealing other peoples ideas; (2) resisting any kind of meaningful regulation (by pushing the idea that the danger is AI becoming intelegent); (3) based on extremely unfair (and harmful to the workers) labor practices (mostly in other countries) to get the training data and content moderation it needs; and (4) contributing significantly to global warming. Making it easier for people to access this is unethical, and implies that AI is actually valuable.

If they really want to, let them visit some AI web pages. Ideally, when they do you first warn them about the harm that visiting those pages does.

[Christallized]

DO NOT ADD AI TO FIREFOX.

[Sleepycap]

I do not want this in my browser, sorry.

[NimmyRinon]

I think you'll find that the biggest reason people are against this is that it feels as though every company is forcing some kind of AI upon users, with scant regard to whether it's actually helpful or even needed.

Yes, it'll be "tricky" and require more work, but I really feel that the best way you can implement this without alienating a significant portion of the user base is by making it an extension that people can add if they want, assuming you've been able to address the concerns that people have raised regarding the companies who produce the chatbots in question both for the present and the future (start-ups being bought out and their product Made Worse is a long-standing phenomenon; this needs to be considered).

If it's an extension, then it gives people the option to try it and keep it or remove it, and also reduces the risk of situations such as (just for example) a built-in AI chatbot from a start-up being bought out and, to use the phrase coined by Corey Doctorow, "en**bleep**tened". If that happens, removing the extension is a trivial matter for those who take issue with it, and provides people with the kind of personal choice they've come to love FireFox for, right from the start.

I do think the extra effort of making it an extension would be well worth it in this case.

[nicod]

Please, no !

[thenothingmaker]

It's been said by countless others and I'll add my voice to theirs: there is no ethical use of AI and there will never be. Willingly integrating it to Firefox seems to go against everything it's worked for in the past, *especially* data privacy (though the ecological consequences need to be considered too). It would be the height of hypocrisy for a browser whose main selling point is that they take security and privacy much more seriously than any other. Beyond even considering whether this is useful, which I doubt, there is no way to make any of this safe or secure. I am begging you to reconsider, or I will simply use something else entirely (and I've been vocally advocating for Firefox for years!)

[linktothecats]

Hey Moz://a!

This decision has me concerned for your company, us as users, and the environment. AI is a really resource intensive feature to implement, especially because most people don't use it anyway. It can make up information and it takes way too much water. The Firefox userbase is here because they want an alternative to Google's generative AI ridden trash that is their search function. By adding it, you'll be making this change insignificant, which may drive users towards other alternatives.

[HydroDragon64]

Please no. There’s nothing an AI could really be of help with for browsing the internet. If people visit the same sites repeatedly they’ll just use browser bookmarks, they don’t need an AI for that. Using an AI as a search function will only lead to the same misinformation or outright wrong answers as other AI implemented search engines. Not to mention how secure the information being stored by the AI will actually be.

[roseslushies]

ABSOLUTELY NOT! The majority of your userbase uses firefox because it's one of the few remaining bastions of privacy on the internet. "AI," as it currently stands, is almost entirely founded upon data-scraping and intellectual theft, and is quickly becoming the largest contributor to misinformation on the modern web. You can hardly escape AI anywhere online at this point; the moment firefox starts shoving AI in my face as well is the moment I will have completely lost faith in this browser and everything it's supposed to stand for. Seriously rethink this.

[parada]

Echoing what others have said more eloquently: please spend your precious and scarce resources on things that are actually important.

If this feature is introduced in a main release I will be switching to another browser and deleting my mozilla account together with all its data.

[Nogling]

Absolutely not - “AI” is a poorly implemented grift with massive, unavoidable environmental impact that relies on the complete and utter disregard of any and all privacy and intellectual property laws.

There is absolutely no way to implement AI into Firefox without compromising its core tenets.

This is completely unacceptable.

[TNAQM]

Don't do this please, I installed firefox to get away from stupid ai stuff that add nothing of value that you can't do with an easy search.

[Yin1]

Firefox, don't do it, people use your browser to GET AWAY from AI, you WILL lose this battle and ALOT of money if you go for AI, you are better then this, trust the people who USE your browser

[zenlighting]

I have defended Firefox to friends, family, and people online I've never met before. Adding AI into the browser is a slap to my face and a punch to the gut in the wake of every good thing I've said about this company.

We. Do. Not. Want. It.

[fyrdraaca]

As a loyal firefox user, I must say NO to any AI features on the browser. If it goes forward, I will be looking for alternative browser options as AI is a very big no to  me.

[wtapun]

There is nothing that ai will add to Firefox that isn't already being done. The ecological damage, plagiarism issues, false data it spits out and the bloated cost of it's creation and existence  can't be ignored. If you add ai to this browser it will be a huge blow to the good will you have created with your entire userbase and has been a driving force for not putting money into, leaveing, or cancelling services, like yours

[kaclynch9]

I want absolutely nothing to do with AI in my Firefox. This is a trusted browser for me, and this decision is shattering that trust.

[karwinz]

ai is NOT the way to improve firefox. please do not implement it in any way ever.

[RubiconArt]

Hello, I would ask you to consider not attaching any AI to firefox. It's antithetical to all the values that Firefox holds, not to mention its incredibly bad for the enviroment, inherently and often is outright wrong, and is an insult to artists and creators everywhere. It's a plagarism machine that has proven over and over again to be poor at what it does. Please do not do this. Stay strong on the morals that have made firefox good, take a stance against plagarism and generative AI.

[Slytherkins]

Please no.

[JMGF]

AI reduces functionality of existing services, steals from people and is an environmental disaster. Please do not implement.

[galoisghost]

Remove this. Do not want

[thejayedead]

I want less AI in things, not more. Based on the comments, most people agree with that.

[JellyfishArcani]

Dear Mozilla, whom I presently respect:

No Thanks!

Love, me

[wwahammy]

@Mardakrespectfully, who is your supervisor? I don't think you're willfully ignoring what we're saying but you're not the one making these decisions.

If you can't stop this terrible waste of resources, then give us someone who can. It's not fair that you have to take the brunt of this when you're not the one deciding it.

[michellekb]

Today was the day I decided I won't be buying any more iPhones, and if y'all don't change course on this, it'll be the day I quit using Firefox too. 

[Tedwards]

AI is the worst thing to add to Firefox. I might finally have to install some other browser if you do 😕

[JustAnyUser]

 If y'all (Mozilla) are wondering why this thread is being spammed its because an anti-ai author with a very large anti-ai following posted a link to this page on Tumblr telling them to come here and spam the thread. So, if it seems like y'all have an inorganically large amount of responses here, it's because they aren't occurring organically, its an attempt to have the feature removed because the author doesn't "believe" in the use of AI and is weaponizing their followers in response to the feature. Just thought y'all should know, this thread likely won't represent a fair cross section of average users thoughts anymore and is likely going to skew heavily toward panning this feature because of this 4000+ response post urging people to sign up to post in this thread to have the feature removed. Just thought you should know.  

[RedKobalt]

A lot of Tumblr users use Firefox and don't like AI. The post is telling them what's happening and they're speaking their mind on it. I'm one of the people who saw the post and came here to say keep that bs out of Firefox, a service I've been using for over a decade. If it weren't for the post I wouldn't of known.

[midgy]

Same! Also a tumblr user, and I have been using firefox for over a decade, and have made multiple posts on my blog and other socials promoting the usage of Firefox to friends, family, and followers over the usage of chrome, and the addition of LLM features to the browser goes against everything that I have believed and understood to be true about the brand of Firefox. I like that Firefox doesn't have LLM nonsense in it, and that it is significantly more lightweight than chromium browsers. Because of this, it runs spiffilly on my 12 year old mac, and I suspect that the addition of LLM features would significantly decrease performance on low spec hardware machines.