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Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

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Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#151

Post by taurath »

alexgotoi wrote: post #131

This is exactly the kind of boring, unsexy feature that actually builds trust. It’s the opposite of the usual “surprise, here’s an AI sidebar you didn’t ask for and can’t fully disable” pattern. If they want people to try this stuff, the path is pretty simple: ship a browser that treats AI like any other power feature. Off by default, clearly explained, reversible, and preferably shippable as an extension. You can al…

> It’s the opposite of the usual “surprise, here’s an AI sidebar you didn’t ask for and can’t fully disable” pattern.

They literally shipped an AI sidebar nobody asked for.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#152

Post by AuthAuth »

e2le wrote: post #9

Of all the AI features added recently, local translations is one that I would be OK with being enabled by default. It's useful, and its value proposition is much less dubious.

What about voice to text, text to voice, alt text generation for images that dont have them. Search suggestions, auto correct, malicious website detection.

Those are all features using AI and features I consider to be useful

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#153

Post by azemetre »

dang wrote: post #110
joduplessis wrote: post #11

> We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this. Honestly, is anybody reading what's getting written anymore? If it gets taken seriously it would ship with an enable-AI button, not the other way round.

" Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I thought this rule only applied to users commenting with each other, didn't know it applied to posted content too.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#154

Post by protocolture »

AuthAuth wrote: post #145
andrepd wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years. The confidence with which people say these things... s/AI/NFT and I've heard this exact sentence many times before.

NFT was always a meme and crypto has proven its staying power.

NFT was a meme in "People are going to buy my jpeg"

But as a protocol it has legs and is still used under the hood in projects.

Cryptokitties was always the best monetisation use case for NFTs, and its still going.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#155

Post by Dwedit »

e2le wrote: post #9

Of all the AI features added recently, local translations is one that I would be OK with being enabled by default. It's useful, and its value proposition is much less dubious.

I don't like how translation is only unavailable when the browser "thinks" the whole site is in a particular language. What if there's a single sentence that's not? Or if it guesses the site's language incorrectly? No translation for you.

We need more control over the feature. Even just the ability to select text, right click, and have a "Translation" menu would be huge. Looks like there is such a feature, but it doesn't let you pick the language pairs, which is the most basic requirement of translation.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#156

Post by baobun »

Saris wrote: post #41
t1234s wrote: post #34

Is there a fork of firefox where you have all the same core functionality and support for extensions but with all the mozilla services (pocket, safe browsing, forced crap on the new tab page, any AI service, etc...) removed?

Zen, Waterfox, Librewolf, Floorp.. For android there's Fennec, Iceraven. There are more, those are just the ones I can recall.

Zen and Floorp are not obvious improvements from a privacy and control perspective.

Waterfox, Librewolf and Mullvad Browser are worth considering.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#157

Post by fooofw »

Dwedit wrote: post #155
e2le wrote: post #9

Of all the AI features added recently, local translations is one that I would be OK with being enabled by default. It's useful, and its value proposition is much less dubious.

I don't like how translation is only unavailable when the browser "thinks" the whole site is in a particular language. What if there's a single sentence that's not? Or if it guesses the site's language incorrectly? No translation for you. We need more control over the feature. Even just the ability to select text, right click, and have a "Translation" menu would be huge. Looks like there is such a feature, but it doe…

My version of Firefox (146.0 on Debian) has exactly this. If I select a sentence and right-click, I get the menu item "Translate selection to ". In the resulting box, I can change the language pair - but the defaults that I have seen were also reasonable.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/website-translation has the text: "A new Translate selection feature has been added starting in Firefox version 128, that enables you to highlight and translate selected text."

Edit: Sorry, I misread the comment to say that there was no such menu item. Edited to reflect this.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#158

Post by baobun »

squigz wrote: post #100

I'll never understand why people feel so strongly about features like this and that they have to be opt-in. I don't use bookmarks. Should those be opt-in? What about the other 85% of the browser's features I don't use?

The bookmarks feature doesn't silently connect to their servers in the background to function.

The supposed local-only features like translations will download at least model updates and configuration, which leaks metadata.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#159

Post by mcjiggerlog »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #90
gigel82 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to live in your world for a bit... I can't imagine any future where having AI in your browser is a net positive for any user. It sounds like an absolute dystopian privacy and security nightmare.

Why? Imagine you have an AI button. When you click it, the locally running LLM gets a copy of the web site in the context window, and you get to ask it a prompt, e.g. "summarize this". Imagine the browser asks you at some point, whether you want to hear about new features. The buttons offered to you are "FUCK OFF AND NEVER, EVER BOTHER ME AGAIN", "Please show me a summary once a month", "Show timely, non-modal notifi…

> Imagine you have an AI button. When you click it, the locally running LLM gets a copy of the web site in the context window, and you get to ask it a prompt, e.g. "summarize this".

They basically already have this feature: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-link-previews-firef...

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#160

Post by micromacrofoot »

I'm not sure why people still believe this, especially developers. We're starting to literally just build AI into everything... you're not even going to know what's AI and what's not. The phase of labeling everything with cute little sparkles is starting to end and AI is going to be used similarly to external libraries.

If you don't like AI you need to seek legislation and pressure your local politicians. It's the only way to stop it.

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