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!
09-10-2024 12:20 PM
What use case justifies the environmental impact? When large language models are inherently based off stolen data, that lies in its outputs unpredictably, when it is so much a turn off for artists and writers and people who actually know about the field?
09-10-2024 08:56 AM
One of the major reasons I use Firefox is the lack of AI. I am firmly anti AI. AI also has a huge negative environmental impact with no clear benefit to me. Please do not implement it. Thank you
09-10-2024 08:56 AM
No.
09-10-2024 08:58 AM
no.
09-10-2024 08:57 AM
Absolutely not. AI is such an invasive, overreacting technology being forced into every aspect of our lives. AI models are built on mass theft and plagiarism. Functionally it's a security nightmare.
You say this toggle is optional but the fact you're even entertaining the idea is a bad sign for the future regarding Mozilla's leadership and general philosophy. It's only a matter of time before it's no longer an option.
Firefox is one of the few bastions of secure and accessible internet left. I have to assume Mozilla is aware of the problems with AI. I hope this post is not just a PR stunt to make it look like you care about your users while proceeding with this ill advised implementation. I would hate to go back to friends, family, and coworkers and tell them I no longer recommend Firefox as a browser, but I will do it if I must.
09-10-2024 08:58 AM
Do not implement it. Do NOT include it optionally either. It's an unnecessary function that serves the wants of the few at the expense of the many.
In addition, I am requesting that you and your organization take a firm anti-generative AI stance on the whole.
09-10-2024 08:59 AM
please don't do this. the lack of this kind of ai was one of the biggest reasons i came to firefox in the first place
09-10-2024 08:59 AM
Please no. Please stop wasting dev time and money on these "features", that could instead be spent on polishing Firefox.
09-10-2024 08:59 AM
I really, really don't want this to happen. I installed Firefox to get away from having language models and AI thrown in my face. I'm sure others can relate.
09-10-2024 09:00 AM
Please don't ruin the last reasonable browser with this bull**bleep**.
09-10-2024 09:03 AM
It's lovely to know that my comments are censored.
Is "BS" okay to use?
09-10-2024 09:00 AM
Stop cut it out
09-10-2024 09:03 AM
I swear to god, I'll stop using Firefox.
09-10-2024 09:04 AM
I don't want AI anywhere near my browser, please. I've been a loyal Mozilla user for over a decade, i subscribe to both Mozilla VPN and Mask Relay, and I really really don't want AI
09-10-2024 09:04 AM
Dear God please no
09-10-2024 09:12 AM
i dont think it's neccessary, seems incidental at best to all the reasons I, and everyone I know, use firefox, and I'm worried about potential performance impacts. I don't think it'd make the browser better or more useful to the people who actually use it, but it does have real potential of making it worse
09-10-2024 09:18 AM
Maybe you should focus on finally adding proper HDR support for Firefox before considering adding a (imho useless) AI button
09-10-2024 09:19 AM
no one wants ai. it's being shoved in our faces because tech giants banked on it being a smash hit, and then it wasn't, and now they want it to pay off, so they're forcing it on us. is it really worth alienating your userbase for a glorified chatbot?
09-10-2024 09:19 AM
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
09-10-2024 09:22 AM
Absolutely NOT. Please do not do this. I use Firefox as a way to get away from garbage like ai and data-theft.
09-10-2024 09:23 AM
Please, the addition of AI to Firefox is a negative in many instances, from productivity, safety and much more. This push for AI on everything is from investors that are bandwagoning on the newest tech sounding thing but don't actually know how it could actually improve the user experience or help any business, to the point that the AI bubble is now showing signs of bursting amidst many issues from lack of user adoption, legal issues, moral issues and negative views of users towards AI in general. Please do not make another useless AI integration that no users actually want and keep focused on improving the efficiency of Firefox and user privacy, that's what users really want
09-10-2024 09:26 AM
No no no no absolutely no! I do not want this crap in Firefox!
09-10-2024 09:28 AM
Really disappointing to see Firefox jumping on the AI bandwagon. Regardless of whether these companies are directly collecting information from users - and I don't trust their promises of privacy for a second - the reckless disregard for artists' and writers' intellectual property exercised when creating these models in the first place should give anyone pause. This kind of garbage is why I switched to Firefox in the first place. No one wants this.
09-10-2024 09:31 AM
no no no no NO.
09-10-2024 09:36 AM
Absolutely not.
Firefox is supposed to be better than this.
09-10-2024 09:44 AM
Please do not do this. I’d hate to have to stop using Firefox because you think using the hyped up mediocrity generating theft machine is a good idea. I won’t be updating Firefox for now, and hope you’ll reconsider
09-10-2024 09:45 AM
Please don't invest in AI or make it even a optional part of firefox. AI is produced unethically by data scraping and contributes to environmental damage and the depression of wages without providing any value in exchange. If firefox takes this route I will actively look for another option that doesn't make me want to barf.
09-10-2024 09:47 AM
I moved over to Firefox expressly because you were a reliable browser that seemed to care about the privacy and user experience of its users, introducing AI, even experimentally spits in people's faces. Generative AI for search features has already been proven to be a disastrous move by Google, don't follow in their footsteps, I feel like I'm scolding a child. "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it too?"
AI cannot tell the difference between reliable sources and untrustworthy ones, and putting it into practice in any capacity beyond data analysis on which is was solely trained is a horrible idea. It takes ridiculous amounts of money and energy to run, destroys jobs because tech people think its a shiny new toy and fire everyone for the sake of "automation," it makes the user experience harder, and provides incorrect information, even when only used as customer service chats. It is not worth it in any capacity and the fact that this is considered at all disgusts me. Do better.
09-10-2024 09:49 AM
I primarily use a web browser to make HTTP requests and view the results, and have been upset with the creep of web content dependent upon javascript weakening security consciousness; it's now commonplace to assume users will run code sight unseen, and acceptable to be hostile to those who refuse. If you have a problem with it there is no recourse, this is just what the internet is now -- get with it or leave.
Given what I've seen in the past, where browser technology grows to grant functionality without consideration of coherence and safety it does so at the expense of the userbase and to the enrichment of those with the ability to take advantage. I don't even need to download suspicious files to run malicious code nowadays -- my browser streamlines my online experience!
I don't think that means JavaScript shouldn't have been put in web browsers. But how can a browser have JS and not either run every script sight unseen or, in the face of the modern world, subject every user to the most intense alarm fatigue possible?
What I worry about with these service integrations is not their integration as they are now, but where they're going. What I worry about is the role we play in accepting the transition of web technology and what role Mozilla will play -- if we end up as the only browser not offering these services, users seeking them will go elsewhere and get themselves hurt worse, but if Mozilla embraces them, how can they genuinely protect user data security and prevent the fatigue that 45 requests for personal data in an hour can have? Like it or not, one day I will be hungover and check the "don't ask again" box when prompted, as would anyone, and acting otherwise will put your userbase in danger.
09-10-2024 09:52 AM
Can we please not? At the very least I want an option to completely disable this function when it rolls out, but I’d rather not have it at all. If I wanted to be dealing with AI crap, I’d still be using Chrome.
09-10-2024 09:54 AM
I'd rather you beat me to death with a metal pipe
09-10-2024 09:58 AM
I hadn't heard about this until now, but I am considering changing browsers now that I know you're implementing AI into the browser. I don't care that it's "opt-in", I never trust what a company is doing with my data once they start using AI in my face, without asking its users if that's what they wanted. Just because business people and tech bros are raving about it doesn't mean that it's a good feature that your users would appreciate.
09-10-2024 09:59 AM
If you actually care about your users like you claim you'll see everyone BEGGING you not to add AI and actually listen. You have no ideas the depths of inconvenience I am willing to fall to to avoid AI. I will leave Firefox, I will leave it all, don't test me
09-10-2024 10:02 AM
I will change browsers if this is shipped.
09-10-2024 10:08 AM
Please don't add AI
09-10-2024 10:09 AM
No, man, don't do it. Absolute drain on electricity and water resources, horrible for IP holders, and worst of all annoyingly bad at what it's even supposed to do. Just drop this all together, Mozilla, youre beautiful how you are, stay focused on the everything else you do so well.
09-10-2024 10:10 AM
I'm really f'ing tired of getting AI crap shoved in my face. So no, my feedback is that this is a waste of time already.
09-10-2024 10:08 AM
I speak for many long time Firefox users when I say that if I wanted big tech hype garbage shoved down my throat I'd use Chrome. Make this an add-on so that those who want it can have it. Most users do NOT.
09-10-2024 10:12 AM
The entire reason I use Firefox is that you're supposed to be more ethical than companies like Google. If you're going to just jump onto the AI trend despite all of the ethical problems with it, then you're completely useless and I will dump you just like I dumped Google chrome.
Are you trying to alienate your users? Because this seems designed to do exactly that.
09-10-2024 10:13 AM
I would rather change my browsers, my kids' browsers, and actively campaign against a browser (as I do with Chrome, Edge, etc.) than have any level of "AI" in my browser.
It is a black box that by design cannot be examined to earned trust. Please do not do this.