better add a button to *enable* AI
Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
451–460 of 554 posts
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#452Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine you have an AI button. When you click it, the locally running LLM sure, you can imagine Firefox integrating a locally-running LLM if you want. but meanwhile, in the real world [0]: > In the next three years, that means investing in AI that reflects the Mozilla Manifesto. It means diversifying revenue beyond search. if they were going to implement your imagination of a local LLM, there's no reason they'd be…
not to mention the high resource-usage of a local LLM that most PCs wouldn't be able to handle, or would just drain a laptop's battery.
All for searching something trivial, where for 99% of cases the already indexed wikipedia summary is good enough and way faster
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#453Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and not really that harmful in itself Unless you can't afford the split focus. If Mozilla can do 1 thing right or 2 things half-assed, and it looks like this is the case, they should stop and focus on strengthening the core before hanging more stuff around it.
They have enough money to split their focus, sugar daddy Google is providing it.
I didn't mean it just in terms of money. We can see they don't have the ability to deliver on both fronts so maybe start with one, the more important core of the browser.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#454Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you ever need a website you're visiting translated? Have you ever not understood a term or phrase on a website and had to go to wikipedia/urbandictionary/google to explain it? Have you ever wanted to do a 'fuzzy search' of a 300 page document (where you don't know the exact string of text to ctrl-f, but want to see where they talk about a particular topic)?
> Do you ever need a website you're visiting translated? Yes. Firefox and Chrome already offer this. > Have you ever not understood a term or phrase on a website and had to go to wikipedia/urbandictionary/google to explain it? Yeah. And? > Have you ever wanted to do a 'fuzzy search' of a 300 page document (where you don't know the exact string of text to ctrl-f, but want to see where they talk about a particular topi…
"See but what if instead of ctrl+F, we fired up a nvdia gpu in a data center instead .... "
I'll pass. Also for people that already know another language, the auto translate is annoying, inaccurate, and strips all of the humanity out of the writing.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#455I think people screaming "but AI is the future" doesn't recognize what the problem is. The problem is not AI. The problem is that Mozilla keeps jumping on fads instead of focusing on their browser core. There are a tons of "we bundled all the latest crap" Chrome forks out there. Nobody needs more those. Stop pushing bells and whistles. Give us more extensibility instead. Keep supporting v2 manifest and add more. Ther…
Every browser developer should be forced to take an annual pilgrimage to this gravestone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_(web_browser)
1. Take normal browser
2. Shoehorn flavor-of-the-week web-based over-hyped thing into browser "natively"
3. ???
4. Profit!
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#456I'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.…
Why does the browser itself need AI features ? You can still easily visit chagpt via web if Gemini or whatever
It's obvious to you. But many people will think that Firefox doesn't support (accessing) AI unless that feature is prominently displayed.
Most people don't understand how the web works.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#457Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get this dark/pessimistic/Firefox's so done view many people love to harp. Do we want Firefox to return, or to die? We should decide and act accordingly. Telling Firefox to not to move and get out of the place where it currently is a great contradiction in itself. Many potential Chrome users were not users, and now they are. You can change public opinion by putting your money where your mouth is, and being pe…
Many potential Chrome users were not users, and then android happened. I'll believe firefox has a shot to become mainstream when they do something similar. Until them, keep your users or alienate them and disappear.
I'll agree to disagree here and will leave to get a fresh mug of coffee.
Unless we meet in another thread, merry Christmas and happy new year in advance.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#458I think people screaming "but AI is the future" doesn't recognize what the problem is. The problem is not AI. The problem is that Mozilla keeps jumping on fads instead of focusing on their browser core. There are a tons of "we bundled all the latest crap" Chrome forks out there. Nobody needs more those. Stop pushing bells and whistles. Give us more extensibility instead. Keep supporting v2 manifest and add more. Ther…
> The problem is that Mozilla keeps jumping on fads instead of focusing on their browser core No, the problem is that Mozilla needs money if they want to stop leaning off Google, and people are simply too blind by their hatred of AI that doesn't figure out that Mozilla needs money. What is giving shit loads of money right now? A-fucking-I. If their investors portfolio doesn't include AI on their products, nobody will…
A-fucking-I doesn't make the product better. Mozilla constantly runs in every direction other than what their core users want or need.
> You want Mozilla to stop doing that? Guarantee their moneis flow.
Sure, just as soon as they sell something a privacy focused user of a browser wants. Privacy focused password management built into Firefox with paid sync or enterprise integration. Privacy focused paid email hosting, works great with Thunderbird. Had they done any of this back in the day, I'd gladly have paid for it and trusted them over smaller names or Google.
I'm sure they're getting lots of money to throw around playing with the new shiny, but that's not going to keep their users, or keep them happy.
They lost a ton of market share when the browser was slow as an old dog and chrome came on the scene, but they didn't do nearly enough to make up for it.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#459I think people screaming "but AI is the future" doesn't recognize what the problem is. The problem is not AI. The problem is that Mozilla keeps jumping on fads instead of focusing on their browser core. There are a tons of "we bundled all the latest crap" Chrome forks out there. Nobody needs more those. Stop pushing bells and whistles. Give us more extensibility instead. Keep supporting v2 manifest and add more. Ther…
> The problem is that Mozilla keeps jumping on fads instead of focusing on their browser core No, the problem is that Mozilla needs money if they want to stop leaning off Google, and people are simply too blind by their hatred of AI that doesn't figure out that Mozilla needs money. What is giving shit loads of money right now? A-fucking-I. If their investors portfolio doesn't include AI on their products, nobody will…
And how exactly is the AI going to give Mozilla money? I mean not investor money, but actual profit? By alienating their moat userbase (privacy-minded technies)? Because if not for the AI haters, nobody would care about Firefox __at all__.
Funding end-user-facing FOSS is hard. An OS kernel or a DMBS can count on corporations that need new features providing funding. A browser can't. But then if small individual donations aren't enough for them (I think there's still no way to donate to Firefox directly?) they don't have a product.
Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features
#460I'm glad to see some mozilla employees standing their base in the comments. That guy trying to make the point that Mozilla was wasting resources chasing trend only for an employee to say it was a few people checking it out while 1000 people continued work on the normal stuff is nice to see. The non mozilla people in that thread are so petty. Maybe it'd be better to have them go use another browser and stop dragging d…
Can you point to some of these comments?