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!

[Keedrin]

No joke or exaggeration at all, if you forcibly integrate "AI services" into Firefox im switching to a different browser immediately, Full Stop. I picked up Firefox because of the work yall had done in making clear that it was a privacy-focused browser where I *wouldnt* have garbage like this forced on me, if you start forcing it onto the browser then what point is there in sticking around?

[pacohope]

I'm sorry it's so passionately negative, but that's the nature of unasked-for AI features. It's well-documented that consumers are put off by AI features. (example1, example2) Balanced against the overwhelming negative sentiment, Mozilla has put forward some really tepid and uninteresting benefits and use cases:

• Summarize the excerpt and make it easier to scan and understand at a glance. It's pretty well established that LLMs don't do this. Studies have shown LLMs are bad at summarising. Shouldn't Mozilla make sure it actually does what they think it does before they put it in the browser and tell users that it does something?
• Simplify language. We find this feature handy for answering the typical kids’ “why” questions. That seems like an exceptionally weak motivation for spending extraordinarily scarce developer resources modifying the core browser. See above where it doesn't summarise accurately or correctly. The LLM is quite likely to make something incorrect while making it "simpler."
• Ask the chatbot to test your knowledge and memory of the excerpt. Seriously? I won't even dignify that with a counterargument.

I will continue to use Firefox. I still like it better than the alternatives. But when this feature makes it into an ESR version, I'm going to do whatever is required to disable it and I will never look back. I will never wonder whether that feature might have helped me.

[LueDelou124]

Bless you for providing the sources, i lost track of mine and searching proved inefficient. largely because of, you guessed it, generative ai results flooding the search engines!

[Archer]

Please don’t. I used to respect Firefox so much but this is just a horrible idea. I’m very disappointed... 😞

[Grib]

Absolutely not. I use Firefox precisely to avoid the hot garbage that is AI, there is no need for this to exist. 

[Sayyadina]

No AI in Firefox, please. It's just about the only browser I find consistently usable since Vivaldi broke my ad-blocker, but I absolutely can't keep using a product with AI crap in it.

[Miharu]

please don't, I don't want any AI chats in firefox, I use Firefox because it doesn't have any stupid stuff like that.

[local_hunter]

NOT YOU TOO MOZILLA

[ScaryMath]

Please don't. If we want to use AI, there are so so so many sources we can access it. But it's nearly impossible to avoid it when it gets integrated into everything, please don't bring it to Firefox.

[FireFairy]

I just switched to Firefox this year to avoid the AI being pushed out on Google, I will switch to another browser if this is implemented in any way

[pineapplebrain]

hiya. my main feedback is: "this is entirely unnecessary! what is the reasoning behind adding some trendy ai to a browser that is supposed to be private and easy to use? what is anyone even going to do with it?"

ai is not only a generally pointless feature (it does not make things easier to find--rather, it makes it harder to find correct information. it simply summarises words, but how would one know if that summarisation was scraped from an accurate source?), it is also bad for the environment. it creates enormous amounts of electronic waste and carbon emissions. also, i don't think anybody's really going to care. everyone's doing the ai thing now. it's not really going to bring in a lot more revenue. 

[discobee]

Please do not move forward with AI services in Firefox. I trust Firefox with my privacy and also genuinely enjoy using it as a web browser; however, I will be finding an alternative if AI services are integrated into the browser. Even if these services are optional, generative AI has enough ethical and environmental issues that it does not align with the privacy I expect from Firefox. Every other web browser, social media site, and tech company seems determined to give users no choice in having AI built into their systems, even if it is “optional”, but I expected Firefox to remain true to your principles of user privacy and choice, and am disappointed that this doesn’t seem to be the case. 

[dpawensza]

oh for **bleep**'s sake. et tu, Mozilla?

on another note, does anyone know any FOSS Firefox forks/alternatives that won't pull this **bleep** on its users?

[Lyca]

Unless you’re prepared to provide an independently verified list of the sources used to train the model, I will not only refuse to use the function but withdraw my financial support for Firefox. 

[StormFire]

I joined Firefox to avoid AI. I will leave it just as easily if AI gets implemented.

[cyan1]

Ai is harmful and spreads lies constantly. There is no reason to implement a system that will give misinformation to thousands of people. Don't do it.

[madammina]

Absolutely not.  So much of AI is unclear, privacy is murky, we don't know what is going on, energy is a real concern, and is often not at all helpful and is in fact wrong.  Why in the world are you even considering it?

[LysthieaMoons]

NO AI PLEASE. I have been forced to use it in many scenarios and it is nothing but a hassle! It doesn't make anything easier, I just end up spending half an hour trying to get the random number generator (because that's really all AI is) to spit out the correct 1s and 0s that I previously could do myself in just a few minutes! I switch to firefox to avoid google's data scraping, which is the foundation of AI! The grand majority of your users are people like me, and you will loose us all if you implement AI.

[squibbles]

C'mon guys, you should know your userbase well enough to know that nobody's gonna want this. People download Firefox to get AWAY from stuff like this

[AsterianMonarch]

Absolutely not, please do not integrate anything involving the current fad definition of "AI" into this browser. I WILL be finding a different, non-AI supporting browser to use if anything like this is implemented.

[lukadjo]

This should be a browser extension, not baked in.

You can mention it in the settings but it should be something installed separately.

[vondieerde]

I was thinking of purchasing some other mozilla services, but now that I know my money would be going towards AI development/integration, I'd rather purchase said services elsewhere.

Additionally, though you're saying it's optional for now... I've been burned by too many services saying that at first, and suddenly making AI garbage mandatory anyways (ala Windows). if the AI is indeed integrated into Firefox in this manner, I will be switching to a new browser ASAP. No thanks.

[Seekerbasin]

NO NO NO NO AI!! As if being unreliable garbage weren’t bad enough, it’s trained on things without creators’ consent, AND it uses absolutely absurd amounts of power! It’s not profitable either, it’s a TREND. And a bad one at that! If Firefox starts with this AI crap rest assured I’ll be switching browsers permanently and encouraging everyone else I know to do the same.

[FoxLord]

Please no

[MattieCL]

No thank you

[Yoshi20071]

Please don't do this. Not that I'm a statistics person, but like 90% of your users will leave you if any AI stuff gets added to Firefox. Trust me.

[trex]

I know that the obsession with so-called "AI" is the work of a bunch of rich venture capitalists who have poured money into it and now want a return on their investment, but can we not? This fake AI (it's not AI! it's machine learning!), apart from being useless, uses up a colossal amount of natural resources. Please stop drinking the tech bro Kool Aid.

[LueDelou124]

Please don't put AI in firefox. While it may initially seem helpful to some, I have seen supposedly good ai tools deteriorate at lightspeed over and over and over again. besides that, the AI you are testing would actively create a worse experience for users who assume it is doing what it claims to.

Ai summary is not good; it easily degrades in quality, and it's difficult to repair once it does. people may read the summary assuming it is accurate, when in reality, they have been given a bad summary they should have reported. because they trust firefox, they would trust the ai, even when it is giving a false output.

there is also a major concern for power usage and water consumption. as generative ai, Chatbots often require huge amounts of energy, which builds up quite a bit when tons of people are using it at the same time. and due to their nature as a computer, they require cooling, which is usually done with Water... and most generative ai i have seen end up consuming entirely too much during a time we are already struggling with consumption for humans and crops. average internet use does not compare to even a small niche market of chatbot users.

most firefox users i know switched from chrome to firefox specifically because firefox was the more trustworthy browser that cared about its users, didn't spy on them, and didn't push speculative techbro crap on them every step of the way. please maintain that status as a trustworthy browser, or you will lose a LOT of user trust, and that is extremely difficult to get back. as you can see from the comments already given by other users, this is very concerning, and some people are already messing with their settings to lock themselves to specific versions of firefox just incase you betray their trust and make the AI a regular part of the browser. this is not a good sign.

i apologize to anyone on your team who is excited about these features and their potential, but i'm sorry, this is a bad idea and it should not be continued.

[King]

hell **bleep**ing no

[Siluri]

Please gods NO.

[AntBand]

🤮

[viviansocool]

we do not want this !!!!!!!!!!

[killmeholy]

no. good god no. why does every company have to shill out with the AI trend. it doesnt help anyone. and it shouldnt be forced. "oh but we can just make it an option to disable and turn it off" no. adding it at all proves intent and therefore loses a ton of trust in users. look at how many people swapped to firefox to AVOID AI from chrome. and now look at this. why. why does every company have to try to shill to these bad practices just to appeal to the handful of vocal cryptobros

[starlyn]

I use firefox on all my devices to avoid stuff exactly like this. I don't why you think your userbase who have all switched from Google would enjoy something like this. If I want an AI that doesn't function, I would just use Google Chrome.

[cutthroatpixie]

I use Firefox partly because I don't have to deal with the privacy violations from other browsers and AI would absolutely not make my Firefox experience easier or more productive, it would just make Firefox like every other browser that I avoid using. I have no desire to use AI and just knowing it is part of the browser would have me concerned over my data and the potential for the AI to access my work and history, which I am not okay with in the slightest.

[ginakira22]

Absolutely not. I use firefox because it's more secure than what google chrome is, and with adding AI it will lose that security that makes it the preferred browser. Also AI is a environmental hazard that shouldn't be perpetuated.

[emvaized]

I really like how AI features are being implemented in Firefox, being inobtrusive and opt-in, but still very easy to reach for those who want it. 👍

Although I can't use it frequently, as my sidebar is already occupied by tree tabs addon all the time.

[CrocodileMosaic]

Absolutely not, no. No, no, no.

[StarfighterVix]

I tried it, and within a minute it was giving me medical advice. I don't object to AI as much as many people do, but IT SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON FOR ANYTHING EVEN A LITTLE IMPORTANT. There WILL be people who ask it for advice on important things, there WILL be people who follow that advice, and that WILL lead to them making terrible mistakes.

Don't be part of it.

Thanks for making it opt-in and being open to feedback!

[LueDelou124]

precisely one of my concerns!! by putting this thing in, it gives the impression that it can be trusted, and a percentage of users will follow that trust and believe the ai when it starts giving bad information. this isn't just a bad idea, it is outright dangerous.