Mozilla Connect

rupert · ‎04-19-2023

Hey Connect community members,

Mozilla's Innovation Studio is tasked with investigating new product initiatives to support our goal for a healthier internet. As part of this, we're looking into how folks are applying and using AI, in particular language models like ChatGPT.

There are two ways you can help and contribute to our thinking in this area!

1. Join a research study

We're conducting a user research study to learn how people in the US are using ChatGPT. Participants are asked to take part in a 1-hour interview sometime between April 21–May 5. As a thank you for your time and feedback, you will receive $100 (either as a Paypal transfer or an Amazon gift card). If you are interested in participating, please fill out this 5-minute survey and we will reach out to those who qualify with more details.

2. Comment below with your ideas, thoughts, and concerns

Technology should be built for everyone, and AI is no exception. If you have suggestions or ideas for how AI chatbot tools could be improved and made more open and accessible, or new product ideas in this area you'd like us to pay attention to, we'd love to hear your thoughts below. We'll be reading & engaging with all your responses here so it really does make a difference.

We look forward to hearing from you.

– Innovation Studio

IsawU · ‎04-20-2023

Already suggested, but AI summarizer is my favorite use for AI and there is no good free tool to do that. Furthermore I think it would very well integrate with Firefox' reader view.

I imagine the AI could, in a single interaction, do one or more of the following tasks:

Find a resource talking about a topic = "Find me an article that talks about the future of the AI."
Summarize the article, so that I can better decide if it's what I'm looking for.
Crosscheck the article with other sources (link to sources, studies, …).
Let me ask questions about the article (explain some ideas in the article – ChatPDF style).

I stress again, that the AI does not need to do every task in every interaction, sometimes I'm just browsing trending blog articles with range of titles from bad to clickbait and I want to know where to invest my time -> summarizer

Another favorite would be AI for language learning. This could be expanded into a general hobby coach. There's no way AI can beat in-person teachers, but hobbyists could get a little boost out of AI. Not sure if Mozilla wants to go there.

To be honest, just because we only see news of AI threatening artists, doesn't mean that an AI archivist (language teacher) won't hurt anybody's ability to earn stable income. So maybe we should first teach AI to be handymen, carpenters, plumbers or farmers (…), the professions less and less people want to do.

rupert · ‎04-24-2023

Thanks for this! I can certainly see some value in the ability to interpret an article to allow you to assess it before having to read it, and acting as a navigation assistant in this way

Jon · ‎05-11-2023

Thanks @IsawU!

And for those interested, here is a link to the idea for AI Summaries in Reader View: AI summaries in reader view

PedroSaldanha · ‎04-20-2023

I'm seeing several applications using OpenAI's API applying the same technology to various types of masks. One caught my attention, chatPDF, where I can send a PDF file and it will talk to me about the file. I've been using it a lot to translate and correct texts, for example, I write well in my language but I fail a lot in English, so I will paste this text into ChatGPT and ask it to translate it into English and correct any grammatical errors and then post it in English. Something like Grammarly that would do this automatically for me in this box would be perfect.

There is a race to build the perfect chatbot, but I don't think that will be its main application. An AI in a browser, for example, can receive commands that modify the viewed page such as colors or sizes of elements, selection of tabs by a certain filter, construction or translation or correction of texts in text boxes like the one I'm writing in. Findind pages that could have a content I am searching for. Sometimes we remember something we saw and can't know in which page this was, the AI can read it all for me.

AI Chatbot doesn't seem to be innovation to this point, the next step for AI is to respond to practical commands. Receiving voice commands and responding with voice is something that is not difficult to achieve in the chatbots we see. Alexa? Amazon is selling at the lowest price, emptying the stock for the new generation of AI Voice Home Assistants. Is just time for all the tech is embedded with AI, the successful ones will be those useful, practical, responsive applications. I don't see were a chatbot made only for talking and chill would be healthy! The healthy AI don't exchange ideas with me, he delivers work done. All these repetitive tasks we do everyday on the web or on our tech life will be made by AI with an input, voice or text. Writing emails, comments, close & open tab, update, setting definition, etc.

This current application of chatbots won't last long and will be relegated to a minority of the possibilities. Until people get used to it, they will be giving orders rather than having a conversation, and having those orders responded to is the challenge to be addressed.

rupert · ‎04-24-2023

Thanks for the input – I think there's a lot to be said for looking beyond a chat interface

Jon · ‎05-03-2023

This is an interesting topic, and I'm excited to see everyone's thoughts — so thanks again for kicking it off, @rupert!

In the meantime, I'll jump in. I'm particularly interested in being able to detect what was written/created by ChatGPT or other AI tools. What already exists out there and what are the limitations? But also, what could we at Mozilla (and the community) potentially do that helps us reach that goal of a healthier internet?

This can be for Rupert or anyone else with ideas 😃

bamariefuller · ‎05-03-2023

@Jon do you mean as a consumer of content, you'd appreciate a way to know what content was generated from AI vs a human? What about in a document, where some content might be from AI, but where a human could have contributed initially and then made edits to the content generated from AI? Would you expect to see some type of changelog or history of that collaboration? We're super curious about how much granularity is wanted in a collaborative workflow like that!

Jon · ‎05-04-2023

Yea, as a consumer of content - whether for entertainment or research. It would be good to know that AI created or collaborated in the process ... but good question, the granularity part is where it gets tricky.

DanielCalderon2 · ‎05-23-2023

Hello Jon, personally, the language barrier I think can be a very good thing to implement AI. I speak Spanish and although I am taking classes in English, I always use tools to translate and write in English, because many times the translators do not show me My ideas as I would express them in my language.
And I don't see anywhere an option to see this page in Spanish! FireFox also has fans in Mexico XD

bamariefuller · ‎05-03-2023

I'm the co-founder at Notably.ai and we've been working on ways to increase transparency with how we use AI and also putting safeguards in place for ethical & ux concerns. We'd be happy to share some ways we're doing that, our challenges, and biggest concerns. We don't use Chatgpt but we do use GPT4 through the API.

Also, can we help support the project in any way? We'd be happy to give you all a free account to analyze this research!

rupert · ‎05-05-2023

Would be great to hear more! You can reach out to me at rparry@mozilla.com

sathia · ‎05-08-2023

Project idea name: Instant web AI tool

Many people use developer tools to create websites and web applications, and Mozilla provides several such tools to help developers design and test their websites. With the addition of AI, it is now possible to achieve even more.

For instance, customers can visit Mozilla's browser (developer tool) and input their ideas and requirements. Then, Mozilla's AI technology will automatically convert their ideas into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, enabling even non-technical individuals to build their own websites, complete with logos and other features, and launch them in a matter of minutes.

Furthermore, existing website owners can use Mozilla's developer tools to make real-time changes to their websites and download the latest HTML code from the tool set. This is not limited to UX building, as the AI-powered tool set can handle website development tasks that involve API interaction and more. Additionally, the AI conducts automated tests to identify and address potential security vulnerabilities in existing websites.

rupert · ‎05-08-2023

There's definitely something to this! The ability to interact with websites the way developers can, but using natural language, is compelling. For example, I could see this integrated with a userstyles-based capability, so users can change the feel and behavior of sites.

s1fly · ‎05-11-2023

Thanks very much @rupert for starting this discussion off. There is a lot of conversation around AI applications this year and I was pleased that Mozilla recently set up Mozilla AI as a means to building trustworthy and inclusive AI.

I'm fascinated by AI and how it can be used, but I've got the age where I'm asking why we 'need' chatbots and where it leads humanity. I'm not against it, but it does feel like we're having AI added to everything without necessarily explaining the value of it.

So, for Firefox, I wonder if AI can be used for privacy and security over more generative AI. For example, Firefox could use AI to recognise a cookie banner and, depending on user options (maybe based on Strict vs Standard settings in Enhanced Tracking Protection), either opt in or out of cookies. Perhaps AI can be used to know when to give precise vs approximate location to search or websites. Another useful application might be for AI to accurately simulate other browsers to improve compatibility -I'm thinking Google Meet for example where functionality is reduced when you don't use Chrome.

Just a few ideas to brew on!

aiandenk2 · ‎05-12-2023

We need at least somekind of plugin to install and use a local Chatbot, like redpajama, mpt-7b, stable vicuna or maybe a new "MozillaBot" using all those tools.

rupert · ‎05-12-2023

Open questions here – what is it about a local chat bot that would be particularly important for you, and how would you expect to use this?

aiandenk2 · ‎05-12-2023

Today I found out this for Chromium explorers:

https://github.com/mlc-ai/web-llm

The thing I don't like about any new chatbot, is that they are from monopolies, we cannot rely on them for many reasons, that are the same reason I'm still using Firefox and not Chrome. That's why.

s1fly · ‎05-16-2023

I think, and I'm only speculating here, but the idea of a local chatbot is for the processing to be done privately on-device. The problem I see with that is that I imagine it takes a lot of processing to understand context to give reliable results. Although plenty of AI models do work locally, like improved audio on calls or live captions, I'm not sure if a chatbot could. Besides, the results would be coming from the web anyway.

That all said, I think the expectation from Mozilla would be to keep the requests non-identifiable so that the query is used to improve it without personal data.

DanielCalderon2 · ‎05-21-2023

firefox has always been my favorite browser, I have always felt safe using it, but since EDGE integrated chatGPT, I stopped using firefox, but I do not like the idea of using another browser because I do not trust what is being done with my information and as the goal of OpenIA is that AI is open to all, I think it fits perfectly in the vision of firefox, with the simple fact that they had a plugin that allows you to have chatGPT integrated in the browser, I assure you that they will attract many users.

I am a novice programmer but if i can help in any way, count me in, I would love to learn !

IsawU · ‎05-21-2023

OK this has one but tiny issue…

OpenAI is not really in the open-source scene Firefox operates in. Using OpenAI's products in a product requires you to pay for their API. (You can't even buy their models/weights.)

A browser that's used by millions will require quite the sum of money to operate daily (the same goes for a plugin), so you will most probably need to lay the burden of payment on your users, and not many people will use a ChatGPT plugin you have to pay for.

DanielCalderon2 · ‎05-23-2023

😞 Yes I understand, although I think that using their free API would be more than enough, but I understand what they mean, they would have to be a completely open source ChatBot...

rupert · ‎05-23-2023

These are all great points, and thank you for the initial contribution.
We're seeing a big increase in viable open-source AI models at the moment, and also models which are becoming more feasibly to run locally (thereby reducing the need for a subscription). These are areas we're observing closely.

s1fly · ‎05-25-2023

This might sound a bit vague but I wonder if AI can help with making the web more accessible for people with disabilities? Could AI in Firefox make a site more accessible depending on user needs? Some sites do not work well with screen readers, or text scaling on its own. Perhaps Firefox could adopt AI to intelligently provide better screen reading, scaling, changing contrast and colour automatically, better captioning for any media playing - these sorts of things.

There's also potential for using AI to improve the existing translation add-on and offer more languages. And, just freehwheeling a bit, but how about use the Common Voice project to bring audio translations to people who's first language puts them at a disadvantage when accessing information?

rupert · ‎05-25-2023

Great idea! I could also see auto-alt text as an option, and extracting text from images. Will look into this.

IsawU · ‎05-26-2023

Accessibility is an obvious good use. It should be however very obvious that it's a tool for people who need it, not a tool for developers to be lazy. I'm already seeing blog headlines claiming that with AI, developers no longer need to care about accesibility – which makes me cringe at the utmost level.

rupert · ‎05-25-2023

Hi everyone – thank you for your contributions to this topic. I'll be taking your feedback and new product suggestions and distributing them to the Innovation Studio team so we can assess them for future product opportunities.

We had some great ideas ranging from access to devtools using natural language, accessibility features using machine vision and understanding of code, and open source & local AI models for the browser.

Appreciate all the responses!

Jon · ‎05-26-2023

Hey all,

Thanks so much for participating in this insightful conversation around AI tools and chatbots! We are closing out this thread but want to encourage you to continue sharing your feedback and ideas on this topic (and others too, of course) in new posts—just be sure to use the necessary labels and tags, so your posts are easily searched for and discovered by our teams, including the Innovation Studio.

This is an ongoing series here in the Mozilla Connect community, so stay tuned for the next employee-hosted discussion. As always, we look forward to continuing to collaborate with you all 😀

Jon · ‎06-27-2024

Hey all,

I know this discussion is/has been closed for a bit, but I wanted to follow up and give you all a heads up that we're currently experimenting with some AI services in Firefox Nightly, including a chatbot integration in the sidebar.

It's entirely optional, so if you're interested in trying it out, check out the following thread to learn more and share feedback on the experience:

Share your feedback on the AI services experiment in Nightly

Hope to see ya there 🙌

Mozilla Connect

Contribute to Mozilla's product thinking around AI tools & chatbots