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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

#281

Post by mcny »

protocolture wrote: post #268
samschooler wrote: post #23

I'm going to chime in here, I think 1. This is great and Mozilla is listening to it's core fans and 2. I want Firefox to be a competitive browser. Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years. I want my non-tech family members/friends to install Firefox not because I come over at Christmas, but because they want to. Because it's a browser that "just works.…

> Because it's a browser that "just works." We can't have this if Firefox stays in the pre-ai era. Strongly disagree. Theres no expectation of AI as a core browsing experience. There isnt even really an expectation of AI as part of an extended browsing experience. We cant even predict reliably what AI's relationship to browsing will be if it is even to exist. Mozilla could reliably wait 24 months and follow if featur…

There was also no expectation of process isolation in Mozilla Firefox when Google Chrome first came into the scenes. Electrolysis was painful for Mozilla and yet it was necessary.

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

#282

Post by ruicraveiro »

brokencode wrote: post #224
kgwxd wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then you can install an extension.

I’m fine with an extension personally. And I don’t use Firefox to begin with, so I don’t particularly care what they do. I just think the average browser user in 5-10 years will expect the AI features. And plenty of others won’t want to use those features, and that’s fine.

If I wanted the average browser, I would have stuck with Chrome, or Edge.

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

#283

Post by M2Ys4U »

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".

but.. why? I can read the website myself. That's why I'm on the website.

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

#284

Post by protocolture »

mcny wrote: post #281
protocolture wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because it's a browser that "just works." We can't have this if Firefox stays in the pre-ai era. Strongly disagree. Theres no expectation of AI as a core browsing experience. There isnt even really an expectation of AI as part of an extended browsing experience. We cant even predict reliably what AI's relationship to browsing will be if it is even to exist. Mozilla could reliably wait 24 months and follow if featur…

There was also no expectation of process isolation in Mozilla Firefox when Google Chrome first came into the scenes. Electrolysis was painful for Mozilla and yet it was necessary.

So instead of being flexible enough to adapt to new requirements as users demand them, they are blindly implementing things before they are requested just in case?

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

#285

Post by doctorpangloss »

gigel82 wrote: post #30
samschooler wrote: post #23

I'm going to chime in here, I think 1. This is great and Mozilla is listening to it's core fans and 2. I want Firefox to be a competitive browser. Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years. I want my non-tech family members/friends to install Firefox not because I come over at Christmas, but because they want to. Because it's a browser that "just works.…

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.

haha, what if I told you that the currently existing, shipping product, "ChatGPT / Gemini uses a browser for you" will have more users than Firefox in two years? I will even bet you that will likely be the case in 2 months.

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

#286

Post by BeetleB »

phyzome wrote: post #270
BeetleB wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anything that makes it easy to accidentally send local data elsewhere is a privacy issue. How is it "easy" if nothing is sent unless you configure the AI? What I'm asking is: If I do a brand new profile, default configuration, how can any AI related feature send anything that is of privacy concern? If you don't set up an LLM provider, it has nowhere to send to. I may be wrong, which is why I'm asking in the thread.…

I have no idea whether any of the AI features require explicit setup vs. automatically use a paid-for API somewhere. But it also doesn't matter, because that's the kind of distinction that I've seen go back and forth elsewhere.

OK, to be frank, it seems like people are needlessly crazy paranoid.

I agree with:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316763

278 comments, many very angry, and no one can clearly articulate how privacy is being compromised because of the AI features.

On a project whose source is available.

Insane.

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

#288

Post by inferiorhuman »

brokencode wrote: post #202
bayindirh wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering pirating the whole internet and boiling the planet is required to summarize a single page in a mediocre manner, it’s understandable that people who knows how the sausages are made are against it.

We need some regulation on them for sure. They should be paying for the content they train on and use in their search results. They’re still very compelling as a user.

  They’re still very compelling as a user.
Nah.

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

#289

Post by heavyset_go »

protocolture wrote: post #284
mcny wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was also no expectation of process isolation in Mozilla Firefox when Google Chrome first came into the scenes. Electrolysis was painful for Mozilla and yet it was necessary.

So instead of being flexible enough to adapt to new requirements as users demand them, they are blindly implementing things before they are requested just in case?

Believe it or not well-intentioned developers, product managers, etc can read the writing on the wall and see where user expectations are heading based on the apps and products they already use.

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

#290

Post by heavyset_go »

samschooler wrote: post #23

I'm going to chime in here, I think 1. This is great and Mozilla is listening to it's core fans and 2. I want Firefox to be a competitive browser. Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years. I want my non-tech family members/friends to install Firefox not because I come over at Christmas, but because they want to. Because it's a browser that "just works.…

The absolute reactionary response to anything Mozilla does is quite the something to watch, I've never seen another company held to the same standards.

If you read the Mozilla and Firefox related threads over the past week, you'd think Mozilla was the scourge of the internet, worse than DoubleClick in their heyday and worse than Google's hobbling of Chrome.

That said, the AI options for Firefox are opt-in. If you don't want them, don't use them. You are correct in that this is where software is heading, and AI integration is what users will expect going forward.

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