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Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

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Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#61

Post by input_sh »

evolve2k wrote: post #23

Wasn’t their translations project “pre AI”? That’s not running an LLM is it?

It's not an LLM but it is a tiny pre-trained ML model running inside the browser. Funded by the EU and made in partnership with a few European universities as well: https://mozilla.github.io/translations/docs/

Their level of acceptance for releasing a new model (AKA new language support) is to benchmark within 5% difference of Google Translate, basically proving you don't need an external party to do good-enough translations for you. It's like the coolest thing they worked on recently.

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#62

Post by seszett »

username223 wrote: post #51
hn92726819 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The AI features can be disabled entirely or individually, so users can pick and choose what they want to use It sounds like you would want to switch off two of them and leave two of them on, no? How is that malicious compliance? The master AI switch is for people that have moral issues with all AI, so they want all future features turned off.

Mozilla is grouping a bunch of unrelated stuff in with the one thing people don't want.

That's because "AI" is a bunch of unrelated stuff that happens to use LLMs. Maybe you don't agree that machine translation using a large language model is AI, but other people do.

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#63

Post by VortexLain »

chillfox wrote: post #25

I am tired of turning features off. At this point I just want a boring browser that handles html/css/js, bookmarks, tabs (should sleep inactive tabs), plugins (for my chosen password manager and ad blocker), and page zoom. Those are the only features I actually use regularly. That's it, I would be willing to make a one time purchase for that, no subscriptions... Ok, I could maybe be convinced for a subscription if it…

You should probably look into https://justthebrowser.com/. This software sets up browser corporate policies to achieve exactly what you want.

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#64

Post by yeukhon »

hn92726819 wrote: post #45
crabmusket wrote: post #10

Why are there controls to turn off AI features, but no controls to turn on AI features?

In the parallel universe where Firefox defaults to ai features being off, there's a snarky comment like yours about why it isn't on by default. It is really tiring to hear this stuff. People (rightfully) complained there was no switch. One was added. In Chrome, you can't turn off Google's ai unless you install a third party extension that hasn't yet been blocked by Google. Not a lot of companies allow disabling their…

You need to read again. Parent is asking opt-in, not opt-out. Firefox should have been doing opt-in

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#65

Post by yeukhon »

eukara wrote: post #55
GCUMstlyHarmls wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time brave gets walked out as some good alternative I cant get past the vc / crypto coin / brave-reward holding garbage. Maybe they're ok now but they had some really gross mistakes (?).

[flagged]

The moment you read “crypto mining in the browser while you browse” should be an immediate red flag that you should run away. Absolutely no need to respect him even when he was the creator of JS. So what.

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#67

Post by Mxrtxn »

bxparks wrote: post #52
rc_kas wrote: post #37

I keep meaning to make a guide "how to make firefox not suck" but I never get around to it. It's a great browser, but I always forget the default settings are super stupid. Myself and power users all have it customized to the hilt. It takes some serious work to get a new new FireFox install working nicely.

No kidding. I had to create a Google Doc document to remember all the little things that I have to clobber in Firefox to make it behave reasonably. Here is an excerpt of how I clobber the defaults: - Enable pixel-perfect smooth scrolling (Linux): MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 (why do we still have to do this??) - Enable: Ctrl-Tab cycles through recent used order - Disable: "Show an image preview when you hover on a tab" - Disabl…

This is why I use nixos so I can easily deploy a configured firefox quickly

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#68

Post by LetMeLogin »

em-miyamoto wrote: post #60
bxparks wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kidding. I had to create a Google Doc document to remember all the little things that I have to clobber in Firefox to make it behave reasonably. Here is an excerpt of how I clobber the defaults: - Enable pixel-perfect smooth scrolling (Linux): MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 (why do we still have to do this??) - Enable: Ctrl-Tab cycles through recent used order - Disable: "Show an image preview when you hover on a tab" - Disabl…

Or you could just use user.js and not have to change every setting manually each time you start from scratch.

Yes, Betterfox all the way in + few custom settings.

I am still in position where I need to put some small pipeline to automatically download latest + merge my stuff and deploy, but even if it's manual every month or two it's not too bad.

Re: Firefox Getting New Controls to Turn Off AI Features

#70

Post by neobrain »

crabmusket wrote: post #10

Why are there controls to turn off AI features, but no controls to turn on AI features?

Most of the features in the article are already opt-in. It's not like Firefox just automatically translates articles against your will, for example.

Mozilla is mainly responding to inflammatory comments like yours by adding additional toggles to disable any sort of trace in the UI about those features even existing.

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