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Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

blog.torproject.org

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Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#231

Post by netule »

shawnz wrote: post #137
netule wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to be able to open up an arbitrary web page in this sidebar. It would be super valuable for research. They can obviously do it, since the AI sidebar also loads a web page, but the functionality is locked for some reason, and vertical splitting extensions are pure jank. I really wish Mozilla would focus on addressing some of the numerous user feature requests, rather than whatever the current trend is.

Would the split tabs feature that they are currently rolling out work for your use case? https://windowsreport.com/hands-on-firefoxs-new-split-view-l...

Absolutely, 100%. I'm glad they're finally implementing it!

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#232

Post by oneshtein »

dandanua wrote: post #202
barbazoo wrote: post #10

Didn’t know Firefox had an “AI sidebar” https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot Seems to be unconnected to any model and off by default.

It's super useful for power users. You can connect any model you like through ollama (or similar services) and use your own pre-defined prompts to run against the selected text on websites simply from right click context menu.

How to connect it to Ollama? I use PageAssist[1] extension for that.

[1]: https://github.com/n4ze3m/page-assist

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#233

Post by callamdelaney »

SpecialistK wrote: post #203
callamdelaney wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of tabs?

Have you heard of the HN guidelines? > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

I'm curious, why did you call out behaviour which goes against the guidelines, with behaviour that goes against the guidelines?

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#234

Post by kirito1337 »

Noaidi wrote: post #114
MrAlex94 wrote: post #11

Just an FYI for anyone who is interested, I’ve also been doing the same for Waterfox. Mozilla have taken into consideration doing things locally, such as tab organisation and the likes (one would assume pre-GPT era and with regard to features not utilising LLMs this would’ve been branded as ML functionality) but I’m not fully convinced this still won’t open up potential security issues in the future[for users of AI b…

Thank you! Downloading Waterfox now and spreading the word! This AI jamming its way into everything needs to end.

YES

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#235

Post by dandanua »

oneshtein wrote: post #232
dandanua wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's super useful for power users. You can connect any model you like through ollama (or similar services) and use your own pre-defined prompts to run against the selected text on websites simply from right click context menu.

How to connect it to Ollama? I use PageAssist[1] extension for that. [1]: https://github.com/n4ze3m/page-assist

You have to change settings in about:config, e.g. `browser.ml.chat.provider = http://localhost:3333` with the address of your model server (I actually use open-webui with ollama for that).

Then you could change the prompts, for example, those are mine :

browser.ml.chat.prompts.0 {"id":"search", "value": "What do you know about the selected text?", "label": "Search"}

browser.ml.chat.prompts.1 {"id":"grammar", "value": "Can you fix the grammar in the selected text?", "label": "Grammar"}

browser.ml.chat.prompts.2 {"id":"summary", "value": "Can you summarize the selected text?", "label": "Summary"}

browser.ml.chat.prompts.3 {"id":"code", "value": "Can you explain the selected code?", "label": "Code"}

browser.ml.chat.prompts.4 {"id":"translate", "value": "Can you translate the selected text?", "label": "Translate"}

I have found instructions here https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/advanced-configur..., though they are a bit outdated since you have to setup prompts differently.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#236

Post by dandanua »

eloisant wrote: post #134
squidbeak wrote: post #17

An AI sidebar doesn't bother me. But it should be an extension, not an inescapable part of the browser.

Not only that, AI providers shouldn't be a hardcoded list. Firefox used to be the most configurable, everything plugable browser, what happened on that? If a 1.0 was released today, would they have a hardcoded list of search engines?

The ability to point it to another provider (or localhost) is hidden, see my other comment here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45614157 on how to get there. I don't know the reason for this, but it's ok for me as it is.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#237

Post by rocketvole »

godelski wrote: post #207
chrisweekly wrote: post #55

I hope Orion (from Kagi) gains more traction and follows through w/ open-sourcing everything. Privacy-first, 0-telemetry, performant, capable... just not OSS (yet).

I use it on my iPhone because I can actually get ad blocking but it is also the glitchiest browser I've ever used. Worth it for no ads, but that's kinda Apple's issue.

ublock origin lite is now available on the app store- could be woth a look if you want safari ad blocking

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#238

Post by paradox460 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #129
ryandrake wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it is a "real emergency," modal dialogs still don't make sense because people are so annoyed by them, they don't read them . If you really, really want the user to read something, don't put it in a modal that pops up over the thing they actually want to do. They're pretty much horrible UX for any conceivable use case.

There are certain applications that I'm frequently using to resolve a problem (say I just found out a bill is overdue) where I really feel under the gun and I find it astonishingly annoying to have to close a large number of dialogs telling me about new features. A human being with some empathy might realize that you're initially in a state where you're not receptive to a message and later realize you are. If I got a…

My bank telling me that I've qualified for even more debt when I'm trying to manage what I've already got is a great example of this

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#239

Post by paradox460 »

haskellshill wrote: post #80
ghjv wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this would be admirable if it's done in earnest to try and increase accessibility, but you say explicitly it's done specifically to "pour sand in the gears". please don't

Maybe ff will actually fix the problem then. They certainly have the money to, they just chose not to

Fix accessibility or raise the CEO's salary again.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#240

Post by godelski »

rocketvole wrote: post #237
godelski wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it on my iPhone because I can actually get ad blocking but it is also the glitchiest browser I've ever used. Worth it for no ads, but that's kinda Apple's issue.

ublock origin lite is now available on the app store- could be woth a look if you want safari ad blocking

Thanks! I'll give it a try. Sad it doesn't seem to work in Firefox
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