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I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

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Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#51

Post by sorcercode »

I couldn't disagree more. I want responsible AI and i would expect Mozilla to lead the way on how to do this when it comes to browsers (they were pioneers when it came to containers and privacy control).

Here's some ways I can think of:

- seamless integration with local models

- opt in and opt out experience when needed

- ai instrumentation (so fill up tedious long web forms for me)

- ai and accessibility

these are off the top of my head.

it boggles my mind that there are so many convinced that AI doesn't offer good use cases for a browser.

I think the "how they introduce it" part is crucial and it doesn't look like Mozilla has cracked that nut from the announcement. but to say no one wants this is just not true and short sighted.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#52

Post by fuzzy2 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #16

I do, the "go to a website to use AI" era is taking too long, I want full integration. I don't want to use websites or apps, I want to ask for things using human language and get a human-like response. I tire of all these interfaces.

What you describe is, at least from my perspective, entirely different from "full integration" (of AI in browsers). Instead, you want to replace computers entirely, with a voice assistant somewhat like Alexa, backed by SOTA STT, TTS and AI (possibly LLM agents).

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#53

Post by hansmayer »

everdrive wrote: post #4

Does anyone want AI in anything? I can see the value of navigating to an LLM and asking specific questions, but generally speaking I don't want that just running / waiting on my machine as I open a variety of applications. It's a huge waste of resources and for most normal people is an edge case.

I'd upvote this a 100 times. It's gotten to a point where, when I see a UI element, text, or email subject featuring those irritating twinkling-emojis that are supposed to indicate something between "magic" and "incredible speed", I feel physical uneasiness. Maybe it's precisely because of this contradiction that these symbols now stand for. Recently we purchased an .io domain for a product we're working on. Guess what, few days later there comes an e-mail with that twinkly-crap-start containing a suggestion that a ".com" domain for the same name is available, and that at a rather low price! Gasp! So I look it up...well yeah, it is a .com alright. But missing the bloody last letter of our name. Such is the crap that you get out of those LLMs, always incomplete, always missing something and this is increasingly the sentiment in the tech professionals community - no thanks, we don't want you to keep feeding us your slop, billions that you burned already into nothing be damned!

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#54

Post by probably_wrong »

aquova wrote: post #23
transcriptase wrote: post #10

Nobody wants anything from Mozilla except Firefox/Thunderbird to be high-performance alternatives to Chrome/Outlook with fewer restrictions on extensions. That’s it. The rest is just activism and kids playing in a sandbox with non-profit money to pad out their resume with whatever topical keywords might land them their next gig.

I see this sentiment a lot, but I never agree with it. Sure, some of their projects seem very odd for them to lead, but given that they are completely reliant on their competitor for cash -- a revenue source that has been threatened several times by anti-trust cases against Google -- they should be looking to branch out. Firefox alone won't pay the bills, so they need to try and find some other revenue source. Plus,…

> Chrome has essentially won. Not necessarily for any engineering reason, at least not these days, but from continued momentum of being the market leader.

Ah, how the young forget... Mozilla became popular precisely due to their willingness to challenge the market leader at the time [1], namely, Internet Explorer. Going against the market leader should be in their DNA. The fight is not lost just because there's a market leader. If anything, Mozilla is currently losing the battle because the leadership doesn't believe they can do it again.

I'm fine with Mozilla diversifying their income, but I'm not fine with Mozilla sacrificing their browser (the part we desperately need the most) in the name of a "Digital Rights Foundation" that, at this rate, will lose their seat at the negotiating table.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#/m...

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#55

Post by lucasoshiro »

coldpie wrote: post #11
everdrive wrote: post #4

Does anyone want AI in anything? I can see the value of navigating to an LLM and asking specific questions, but generally speaking I don't want that just running / waiting on my machine as I open a variety of applications. It's a huge waste of resources and for most normal people is an edge case.

> Does anyone want AI in anything? Yeah, they do. Go talk to anyone who isn't in a super-online bubble such as HN or Bsky or a Firefox early-adopter program. They're all using it, all the time, for everything. I don't like it either, but that's the reality.

> They're all using it, all the time, for everything

Do you know someone? Using Firefox nowadays is itself a "super-online bubble"

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#56

Post by nerdjon »

everdrive wrote: post #4

Does anyone want AI in anything? I can see the value of navigating to an LLM and asking specific questions, but generally speaking I don't want that just running / waiting on my machine as I open a variety of applications. It's a huge waste of resources and for most normal people is an edge case.

Yes and no and this is the problem with the current marketing around AI.

I very much do want what used to be just called ML that was invisible and actually beneficial. Autocorrect, smart touch screen keyboards, music recommendations, etc. But the problem is that all of that stuff is now also just being called "AI" left and right.

That being said I think what most people think of when they say "AI" is really not as beneficial as they are trying to push. It has some uses but I think most of those uses are not going to be in your face AI as we are pushing now and instead in the background.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#59

Post by threetonesun »

everdrive wrote: post #42
giancarlostoro wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to hate Twitter when it first launched because I thought short form text was stupid, now I see everything will become summaries with AI and nobody will ever read anything meaningful.

It could be something of an historical return to form; a small class of properly educated people and then the wider, semi-literate masses.

I'm "properly educated" by most definitions, 95% of web pages are garbage and a summary is fine. Also I imagine you frequently read summaries of books and movies and many other things before deciding to read or watch the entire work.
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