In July of 2024, almost one year ago, Mozilla put it to the community on whether or not Firefox should receive machine learning AI features. In September of 2024, Mozilla added a machine learning AI extension to Firefox, and I pointed out that in the July feedback thread, 95% of the replies were a strong and clear "No" to such a feature being added to the browser.
The defense I heard then was that machine learning AI was "optional." It was an extension. I didn't have to download it.
It is now no longer optional.
95% of replies you got 11 months ago were telling you not to do it. Are you truly serving your users anymore? How desperate are things at Mozilla HQ that this kind of move is necessary? I have no faith you actually care about my privacy or what I as a user want. Not when you ignore so many voices in favor of... what, exactly? If it's not collecting and selling data, then what are you doing? You aren't building anything that anyone who can still think for themselves actually needs. A machine that "hallucinates" answers isn't actually giving people answers. You aren't making lives better. You aren't making people smarter. This isn't the future. Who are you lying to? Who is lying to you?
It's not going to get better. Five years from now we are not going to look back on this moment and say, "This was the turning point where the next revolution started." 95% of people who could be bothered to give you feedback told you to stop doing this last year.
What's it going to take for you to actually service your users here?
