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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

#351

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.

try asking a person?

society has clearly moved on beyond "pay a person to do it" so if I can talk to something that can understand language well enough to do tasks on my behalf that's what I have to take

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#352
post #52

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).

eventually, but that's going to take a decade at this rate... no one has a voice assistant that can actually do anything worthwhile beyond than flip some light switches

right now we could get a browser that understands what's on the website and can execute a task for me, that's completely possible... every bill I get shouldn't require me to navigate some labyrinth of some 20 year old's idea of a slick user experience

I shouldn't have to learn a new interface for every single thing I do, but that's the reality we're living in... I'd rather AI handle it

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#353
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existence of the features doesn’t bother me. It’s the constant nagging about them. I can’t use a google product without being harassed to the point of not being able to work by offers to “help me write” or whatever. Having the feature on a menu somewhere would be fine. The problem is the confluence of new features now becoming possible, and companies no longer building software for their users but as vehicles to…

That's where I'm at with these. I don't personally care if a product includes AI, it's the pushiness of it that's annoying. That, and the inordinate amount of effort being devoted to it. It's just hilarious at this point that Microsoft, for example, is moving heaven and earth to put AI into everything office, and yet Excel still automatically converts random things into dates (the "ability" to turn it off they added…

AI in everything does make shareholders happy while fixing bugs in Excel does not.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#354
post #122
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existence of the features doesn’t bother me. It’s the constant nagging about them. I can’t use a google product without being harassed to the point of not being able to work by offers to “help me write” or whatever. Having the feature on a menu somewhere would be fine. The problem is the confluence of new features now becoming possible, and companies no longer building software for their users but as vehicles to…

> I can’t use a google product without being harassed (...) You can disable AI in Google products. E.g. in Gmail: go to Settings (the gear icon), click See all settings, navigate to the General tab, scroll down to find Smart features and personalization and uncheck the checkbox. Source: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/15604322

Note that this setting (only accessible from desktop) also blocks spellcheck, a feature that absolutely does not need AI to implement

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#355

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.

The AI tools can be an amazing upgrade over normal search boxes. I rarely let Claude write any code, but I get a lot of value out of pointing it at an unfamiliar repo and asking it to track down which files contain the code I’m looking for and to summarize how the pieces fit together.

There are also a lot of subtle AI tools that aren’t in-your-face LLM prompts that flatter you with “Excellent question!”. It’s great having my photo library automatically annotated so I can search for things like “moose” and it will bring up that picture of the moose we saw, rather than me having to remember what year it happened and scroll through photos until I find it.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#358

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.

[dead]

I do all the time, I went to a restaurant the other day and had to ask for a physical menu instead of using an app.

I can't get pizza delivered without using an app.

When I go to a pharmacy, a person tells me to get my meds by putting my information into an app they used to replace the person at the register.

When I go get coffee, my order is in the mix with a dozen people who ordered via an app... I can't get priority despite being literally right there waiting.

We've apparently given up on hiring people for various tasks, so at least give me an app that understands what I ask it instead of funneling me through some "user experience" that differs for every single thing I do.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#359
post #50

I don't want AI in Firefox. For one, because it breaks the Unix philosophy of "doing one thing and doing that well". In that vein, I do want Firefox to develop/allow/improve an interface so that machines, amongst which AI-MCPs, can drive my firefox. And do so safely, secure, contained, etc. So that my AI agent can e.g. open a Firefox tab and do things there on my behalf. Without me being afraid it nukes all my bookma…

> For one, because it breaks the Unix philosophy of "doing one thing and doing that well".

I think that browsers abandoned this well before Firefox (or indeed, Mozilla) existed. These days a browser is an everything platform—perhaps ai could mitigate some of this damage.

Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

#360
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example of "nobody I know" and not nobody.

[flagged]

I'm not a techbro and I want this. I know other people who aren't techbros who want it as well. So what makes your anecdotal evidence any stronger than mine? Maybe you and the author shouldn't be speaking for everyone.
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