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!

[-Lily-]

My two favorite things about Firefox are the privacy and reliability. I know that when I use Firefox my data will be kept private, not sold to google or other mega corporations so I can be shown targeted ads. I also know that the browser and whole system will reliably work for me every time I try to use it. Neither of the same can be said about AI. AI steals data from people who never consented to having their words, artwork, voices, photos, videos etc taken to train an artificial ‘intelligence’. I never want my data or anything I write or make to be used for AI in any capacity at all! It’s also incredibly unreliable. If I have a question, I can search up my question and read articles and sources to synthesize an answer. AI does not work like this. It takes information and presumes that things most commonly said are true, or worse it vomits up a random selection of words, none of which are true. It’s extremely unreliable, and that’s not even mentioning the environmental impacts it has. AI as it stands is completely contrary to the entire reason I use, like and trust Firefox! If we’re going to start spitting in the face of privacy and reliability, why would I continue to use this platform?

[VanDriver]

I believe this feature may not be particularly beneficial at this time. While I appreciate the interest in adopting emerging technologies, a brief online search will reveal that AI applications, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, often lead to inefficiencies and can inadvertently disseminate misinformation. For example, Google's AI summarization tool has issued dangerous recommendations, including the synthesis of hazardous substances such as mustard gas and napalm.

Beyond concerns about potential slowdowns, I would strongly advise against the implementation of this feature due to the current instability of AI models and their reliance on predictive algorithms, which lack necessary fail-safes for reliable usage. Instead, I recommend redirecting our resources toward optimizing browser performance, particularly in relation to managing higher RAM usage, as this is a prevalent issue among many users.

[Unorthodoxic]

Please don't. Please. No.

[Tudly]

Please do not.
I do not want nor need AI scraping things more than it already does. No one needs further en**bleep**tification of the internet.
I understand it's an Opt-In...for now. But so many things start as "only on the periphery, you don't need it for core things" and become...what everything else has become.

[cornonthecobb]

Please do not do this. AI wastes absurd amounts of energy just to give inaccurate results that clog up good answers, and has made interest searches hard enough to use already. Do not contribute to this

[kp12]

No. If Firefox adds AI I'm looking for another browser.

[Nikignik]

Please do not add an AI feature, it only annoys me and adds nothing to my firefox experience. Have a nice day.

[ScribbleBoxFox]

And just like that, I'm looking at alternative web browser options. Not interested in using Firefox if this gets implemented.

[BlackCat]

Please, no. I can find my own useless bull**bleep**, I don't need it served up to me directly by my browser.

[nebulaad]

I will absolutely switch browsers if this becomes a standard feature, toggle or no toggle. If I wanted an idiot machine to scrape my data and feed me nonsense back I'd still be on chrome. You can distinguish yourself by being secure, private, and to work on actual functional features instead of stupid AI bloat. 

[arcaneglitch]

Browsers embracing AI has made the online experience substantially worse and I have no reason to believe that outcome will change just because a different browser is doing it. Privacy has always been my biggest draw to Firefox but the lack of AI integration became a close second after seeing it everywhere else.

[Viverrinus]

I don't believe there's any good or rational reason to implement generative AI features into Firefox. You don't need to look far to see a wide range of examples on how these services actively make life worse for people around the globe.

The only real reason to implement generative AI into a browser is because it's the "new trend", and companies love jumping on any bandwagon that looks half-way profitable.

I know a company is a company is a company, but please don't be that kind of company, Mozilla. Listen to your userbase and focus on making Firefox better, not worse.

[LeoHowler]

Please don't add AI features, nobody sensible wants them.

[C_Fantastico]

A Large Language Model Text Interpreter and Generator is not going to fly in any legitimately privacy focused development. But more than that, these Models continue to be Problems in search of Solutions. To that end:

Give us a User Story that this "AI Services Sidebar" provides some satisfying conclusion to. "As A [Kind of User], I want to [Perform Some Action], so I [Use the Sidebar in a specific way]."

[redrosesforever]

No please. I'm sick of having AI shoved in my face everywhere I go by every company I see.

[doodlemancy]

By the way, if you're hoping AI can do relatively harmless/innocuous sounding things for Firefox users, it also probably can't do those. It can't even summarize text.

"Reviewers told the report’s authors that AI summaries often missed emphasis, nuance and context; included incorrect information or missed relevant information; and sometimes focused on auxiliary points or introduced irrelevant information. Three of the five reviewers said they guessed that they were reviewing AI content.

The reviewers’ overall feedback was that they felt AI summaries may be counterproductive and create further work because of the need to fact-check and refer to original submissions which communicated the message better and more concisely."

[bluebird]

nNOOOOO. no thank you AI is horrible for the environment with the amount of water it consumes, it's useless and annoying to the average consumer, and it steals from writers and people who just put their opinions out online. These are all of course big issues just listen to the feedback from other sites like google or the new copilot on the lenovos. people HATE them, me included. You can't even opt out of having them intrude in your experience, and one of the reasons I chose firefox is because there's no AI here. Its a fast reliable no nonsense browser and i fear this AI addition would take away from that.

[KelBell]

NO NO NO.

[Ctrl-Alt-Tahu]

Nothing on God's green earth could possibly make adding AI to Firefox make it more attractive to use and would actively push away the users who come specifically because Firefox ISN'T the bad part of the Internet. Please don't burn that bridge.

[ahaghejskfoam]

Absolutely not.

Hope this helps 🙂

[ananann]

Don't want it.

[overcasted]

Definitely not a fan of this idea. The AI sidebar isn't something I'm looking for in a browser and find it quite cumbersome to deal with. I would much rather have the ability to filter out AI generated results and find factual information created by real humans, not improvisational generative AI.

[revenantravings]

AI is a horrible waste of energy that spreads misinformation because it can't even tell how many letters are in a word, that has NO place in a browser that's been committed to the safety of its users since it's beginning.  I will be switching browsers if this is implemented.

[DexSavingThrow]

Good god please do NOT. The amount of utter trash and misinformation that is generated by the ai assistants is untrustworthy and honestly just pisses me off. Do not, do not, do not, do not.

[red_tigress]

I think you'll find the overwhelming response is that people don't want this. I appreciate it being an opt-in feature instead of an opt-out, but it's a little disappointing to see it at all. I use Firefox to avoid all the bloated add-ons other browsers insist on.

[sneakcat]

I made an account just to say ABSOLUTELY NOT. I cannot emphasize enough how much i don't want AI to be in my browser. I've been using firefox for years, but this might be the first fork in my arm that makes me consider trying to find a new one. AI is a privacy nightmare and horrible for the environment, and i will not tolerate it. My mind cannot be swayed on this matter.

[csdjlax]

PLEASE NO

IT IS ALREADY A DISASTER FOR POWER GRIDS, WATER SOURCES, AND EMMISSIONS, not to mention the problems with misinformation and plagiarism.

[wyndcaller1]

No I like Firefox because of its privacy. AI is invasive and also has horrible ecological effect

[kerberberrr]

absolutely not!!! ai sucks and nobody wants it!!! i’d like a liveable planet please!!!

[starryNight42]

No AI please I'm so tired

[msgibby]

Please do not implement this.

[BaconMacAndChee]

There has been much great discussion about why this is such a shocking betrayal of your values, but I'd like to comment on two specific issues:

1. The Mozilla staff in this thread have said multiple times that they added chatbots to Firefox because they want to encourage people to explore chatbots, and to encourage innovation as new chatbots are developed. However, no matter how they are designed, all LLMs are built on massive amounts of stolen data and also waste huge amounts of energy during this period of accelerating climate change. We should clearly be discouraging LLM use and development, not encouraging it.
2. Mozilla keeps talking about how the way they are adding LLMs to Firefox is okay because it protects the privacy of Firefox users. But is that even true? Afer all, LLM vendors are extremely untrustworthy as they have, again, stolen copyrighted data and ignored robots.txt files over and over again. The privacy of the end user is a small portion of all the huge problems LLMs cause.

Adding generative AI to Firefox, even in a disabled state, is an indefensible decision. And the massive community response we're seeing here is overwhelmingly negative. Mozilla, please, listen to your users and remove these garbage chatbots!

[StarsInTheWind]

hey i think adding ai is an absolutely horrific idea. catastrophically bad.

[kaed]

this makes no sense at all—firefox is THE privacy browser, why would we, a userbase that prioritizes privacy (including privacy for the data that’s being scraped for ai training databases) want ai implemented in our browser? it makes no sense, and everyone here is clearly not in favor of this. i saw a social media post with thousands of people agreeing, not to mention all these comments here. terrible idea

[manaia-p]

If Firefox starts using AI I'll straight up uninstall it and switch to another browser

[Wifyre]

---

@asafko wrote:

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!

---

Please no, I will never use it, have ethical issues about the current environmental and labor impacts of large scale computing "ai", and am sick of it being added into every computer program that can hold it.

[YouRanForIt]

i love firefox very much but the only thing ai does is hurt the environment and give trash results, i think its just a trend and im sad to see firefox trying to hop on it when firefox is already the best for avoiding annoying features.

[Ashkaztra]

Please no AI.

AI is everywhere on the internet. If someone wants to use it, they can find it in seconds.  Firefox is one of the few places left that doesn't throw AI crap at you every five seconds.

Generative AI is based on intellectual property theft, frequently widely inaccurate or downright completely wrong, and it's terrible for the environment.

I appreciate that you're making it opt-in rather than opt-out like most places are doing, but it still shows that you care more about chasing after the current hot topic than about ethical and environmental concerns.

Just ... Please no.

[theoddity]

DO NOT ADD AI TO FIREFOX

[samm]

Please for the love of god do not do this. Generative ai is one of the worst inventions of all time. I cannot explain enough how badly I want ai to stay as far away as possible from mozilla. I beg of you get an engineer in charge of the company not a money maker.