06-21-2024 11:55 AM - last edited on 10-18-2024 02:19 PM by Jon
Hi folks,
In the next few days, we will start the Nightly experiment which provides easy access to AI services from the sidebar. This functionality is entirely optional, and it’s there to see if it’s a helpful addition to Firefox. It is not built into any core functionality and needs to be turned on by you to see it.
If you want to try the experiment, activate it via Nightly Settings > Firefox Labs (please see full instructions here).
We’d love to hear your feedback once you try out the feature, and we’re open to all your ideas and thoughts, whether it’s small tweaks to the current experience or big, creative suggestions that could boost your productivity and make accessing your favorite tools and services in Firefox even easier.
Thanks so much for helping us improve Firefox!
09-08-2024 04:14 PM
Absolutely not. I don't want, and never wanted, any of this AI garbage in my browser. Please, don't fall down the **bleep**hole with everyone else.
09-08-2024 04:16 PM
Just don't.
Seriously. No.
Not needed, not wanted.
09-08-2024 04:18 PM
As a firefox user since 1.0, a nightly tester since before it was called nightly and a researcher in NLP: please don't.
09-08-2024 04:18 PM
NO.
I do NOT want this. Generative AI is an energy hog built on massive plagiarism and copyright violation. You do not need it, your users do not want it, and you should stop trying to make it happen.
09-08-2024 04:26 PM
Dear god please no.
09-08-2024 04:27 PM
I have been using firefox since ~2006. This is my first time leaving a comment, but I am leaving a comment because my ongoing use of Firefox depends on this issue.
I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO INTEREST in supporting AI implementation on Firefox.
The things that make Firefox appealing are anathema to AI. You cannot have a "more secure" browser if you implement AI. You cannot have a browser that respects people's self-created content if you implement AI. You cannot have a browser that makes using the internet more streamlined and effective if you implement AI. You cannot have a browser that respects people's privacy if you implement AI. These are not challenges. These are realities.
AI, as we all know, was built on plagiarism, copyright infringement and outright theft. Without theft, AI wouldn't work. Without ongoing theft, AI will not improve - we've seen the data on models degrading when they train on model outputs instead of raw data; AI needs the raw data (which nobody is ethically sourcing). As we've seen Google Search and Google Scholar degrade to the point of uselessness because of the addition of AI, we know that adding AI to browsers increases false and misinformation via the LLMs outright lying, manufacturing facts, and "hallucinating" information.
It seems counterproductive for Firefox to implement AI (particularly if Mozilla wants to retain or grow its userbase). As we're witnessing the growing use of AI in deepfakes and revenge porn, and in replacing actual work by real human beings, if Mozilla wants to respect the safety, privacy, and employability of its users, it does not benefit Mozilla (reputationally or practically) to implement AI on Firefox or any of its other products.
If Mozilla values its users, Firefox will not implement AI.
09-08-2024 04:37 PM
All of my preceding post, of course, fails to include the dire environmental impacts of AI. As far as easily-accessible information indicates, every AI out there consumes enormously disporoprtionate resources for the value of the (often incorrect and plagiarized) outputs. AIs contribute to electricity and water consumption to an extent that is shockingly detrimental to the environment and is exacerbating climate change (as none of these emissions of fossil fuel exhaust and water vapour - both GHGs - were ever calculated for or anticipated in existing climate models).
If Mozilla cares, which I'd been led to think it does, Mozilla will not implement AI on its products.
09-08-2024 04:32 PM
The so-called AI you are implementing has nothing to do with intelligence. It's LLM algorithms, glorified Markov chains that have been trained on stolen data by some of the least ethical techbros you can find and they use insane amounts of energy for no tangible benefits when humanity is in dire need of needing to scale down its use of energy.
I have to assume someone at mozilla is getting courted/bribed by the increasingly desperate LLM peddlers who are failing to deliver on their huge promises (because an LLM can NEVER do the things they claim are "just around the corner", it's just not possible) while their existing product has little use outside of novelty joke prompts and spreading disinformation. They are desperate because their product is both useless and expensive and the VC fund guys are starting to wise up to the fact that they will not be getting their money back and thus everyone involved is now doing their best to cram AI into everything in the hope that they can simply overwhelm consumers into capitulating and paying extra for those AI features they never use or wanted in the first place.
Basically, what's happening is that some people started inventing plagiarism machines that run on combustion engines and when no one wanted them the people who had already invested in this **bleep** started to force it into their other products so that you couldn't get a new appliance without it also including a plagiarism machine and a combustion engine and designing the new appliances so that the plagiarism machine would turn on and burn some gas anytime you tried to do something while also spying on you.
Then, in the next phase, they're gonna point at the plagiarism machines and say "look, these things are expensive to run on those huge combustion engines, so we're gonna charge a higher price now". The whole business idea is to more-or-less force us to pay extra for a machine we never wanted and also burn up the whole **bleep** planet at the same time.
It's baffling that you would jump on this catastrophical racket and if you're not even getting bribed for it, it's just sad. Who is this for? The libertarian gamer dudes and Joe Rogan fans that still believe in crypto (the climate destroying scam before LLM AI) and think the Cybertruck looks cool? Let them download a plugin or an app or something then instead of copying Microsoft and Google and make it a core "feature".
I really don't want to go through the hassle of changing my primary web browser but if this is implemented permanently I will do it and I will gladly help every bloody friend and relative I am the go-to tech support for to do the same.
TL; DR: this is a horrible idea and you shouldn't do it.
09-08-2024 04:43 PM
do not want
09-08-2024 04:48 PM
AI products have yet to demonstrate an actual value to their user base. Primarily they seem to be vehicles for venture capitalism or plagiarism. Given their unethical training and extremely resource intense nature, I would advise against incorporating them into Firefox.
09-08-2024 04:49 PM
AI is bad for the environment and society, please do not jump on this bandwagon.
09-08-2024 04:52 PM
There is no use case for "AI" in a browser.
The sole function of a browser is to accurately and efficiently render a website and execute the services it provides. Nothing more.
Resources expended on injecting unwanted, unnecessary, and diversionary "AI" are wasted, and ought to be better spent improving...rendering accuracy and execution efficiency.
09-08-2024 04:51 PM
please do NOT do this. This is an awful idea, pls listen to your active user base
09-08-2024 04:52 PM
Seriously no thank you. Nobody likes AI.
09-08-2024 04:55 PM
Please don't put AI in Firefox! If you absolutely have to, make a plugin.
09-08-2024 04:59 PM
I have made an account simply to say this: Don't do this. This is a complete waste of time and planet-scale environmental resources.
09-08-2024 05:00 PM
As a proponent of Firefox versus other browsers who have doubled down on this nonsense, I don’t want to see any engineering effort, time, or resources being used to add “AI” features. Quite apart from the environmental cost of needless extra computing. I would love to see Firefox take a principled “No AI” stand as a point of difference, and do it soon before the bubble collapses.
09-08-2024 05:00 PM
No, thank you, to A.I. in any context.
09-08-2024 05:01 PM
No. No AI services in Firefox. If they show up in my Firefox, ever, for any reason, I'm switching to Vivaldi from that moment on and never. looking. back.
09-08-2024 05:03 PM
I started using Firefox because it seemed so user-focused in a good way: preserving users’ privacy and browsing experience in a way other popular browsers do not. I DO NOT support the addition of generative AI and may honestly consider changing my browser if such “tools” are implemented.
09-08-2024 05:04 PM
Please don’t. Take a hint from Procreate, they didn’t implement AI and their user base absolutely loved that.
As an artist this AI boom is taking an *extreme* toll on my mental health and the same is true for many other people. This isn’t helpful, it’s annoying at best and life ruining at worst. No one really wants this, it’s not useful unless you are scamming people, and it’s bad for the environment (an understatement). We are begging you not to implement this.
09-08-2024 05:07 PM
No. Definitely not.
09-08-2024 05:08 PM
Do NOT mess up Firefox with this LLM nonsense. It is a privacy and copyright nightmare. You're better than this.
09-08-2024 05:07 PM
Why does Mozilla continue to ignore their users and implement **bleep** like this? Stop it.
09-08-2024 05:09 PM
Absolutely not. Firefox is in a good spot because of Google's BS and we don't want that squandered by an intrusive Plagiarism Machine. Knock it off.
09-08-2024 05:12 PM
Hell no.
No one actually wants this.
AI isn't actually AI, it isn't even close to AI, and it's goddamned useless. Rest assured that if there is a way to turn it off, I will, but it's better for everyone if you never turn it on in the first place.
09-08-2024 05:12 PM
I'll make it simple. The moment I see that in my Firefox browser, I'm deleting it forever. We do NOT want AI "embedded" in our apps. We don't want the feature installed by default. And we most certainly do NOT approve of our lives being captured for your spicy lying machine.
09-08-2024 05:14 PM
If AI is added to Firefox, I will stop using Firefox.
09-08-2024 05:15 PM
Please do not contribute to the normalizing of AI "services". These things are unreliable, even dangerous. The companies behind it are deeply unserious and irresponsible. There is every indication that "AI services" is the latest scam-ecology-disguised-as-technology, similar to NFTs and cryptocurrency.
How about going back to basics and giving us a more robust browser experience?
09-08-2024 05:16 PM
Thanks, I hate it. Please get rid of the AI nonsense.
09-08-2024 05:16 PM
Hello, the use of the AI tech in Firefox is something I am strongly against. Generative AI whether it be for writing or art is largely made off of stolen work & is used far too often to try to replace humans & undercut their livelihoods. I am strongly against Mozilla implementing AI as part of their platform, & a continued effort to do so will result in me looking to other companies for my browser & email services.
09-08-2024 05:18 PM
I neither want nor need plagiarism machine 4.0 integrated into my web browser.
09-08-2024 05:21 PM
I have zero interest in generative “AI” - which is to say, mostly plagiarism and dumbing down - in my browser. This should be removed from the main browser code.
09-08-2024 05:22 PM
If you want to improve Firefox don't add this feature.
09-08-2024 05:24 PM
This feature is not needed and is a waste of resources that could have been used else where. LLM are not smart nor useful. focus in privacy features, not things in themselves are a horrible invasion of privacy.
09-08-2024 05:29 PM
Absolutely no thanks.
09-08-2024 05:32 PM
Please don't clog Firefox up with AI garbage. So many companies are doing this and it adds zero utility and negative appeal to the experience.
09-08-2024 05:34 PM
No no no no no a million times no.
Sick to death of the tech industry insisting on shoving this crap into everything, and being SHOCKED when it turns out to be awful.
09-08-2024 05:36 PM
Please don't.
09-08-2024 05:45 PM
Hi. I hate this! AI has been proven to have massive negative environmental impact, and including it in Firefox only contributes to that problem. AI as a whole currently has huge moral, legal, and logistical issues that make no sense to introduce into an otherwise stable, trustworthy browser.
I use Firefox to get away from things like this. Claiming to fight for a "healthier internet" and then integrating things that actively make the internet (and the planet!) is extremely disappointing to me as a long-time user.