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!
09-09-2024 12:26 PM
No to AI. It's garbage, I don't need any AI on my navigator, I don't WANT any AI on my navigator, no one needs it don't put it on Firefox.
09-09-2024 12:28 PM
Absolutely please do NOT bring AI rubbish into Firefox. The web is awash in synthetic text and LLMs are turning everyone into an average non-thinker — no need to exacerbate this development by putting another resource-intensive bull**bleep**ting machine at everyone's fingertips.
09-09-2024 12:29 PM
Please do not do this
09-09-2024 12:32 PM
I specifically switched to firefox BECAUSE it does not have or support AI among other things. Overall generative AI is very destructive, and I among many others who use firefox would really prefer no generative/suggestive AI built into firefox at all.
09-09-2024 12:32 PM
i will not be trying this feature, and i please request that it doesn't get rolled out. i don't want AI integrated into my browser, thank you very much.
09-09-2024 12:33 PM
I am very low on cash right now. I'm working about a third of my usual hours at my job because of how slow things are.
I will donate $10 to Mozilla if you DO NOT do this.
Machine learning/applied statistics/generative "AI" is not something that needs to be incorporated with everything. I believe it would ultimately harm Mozilla and Firefox. In addition to both being terrible for the environment and what is likely a passing fad (see also: NFTs), the information that generative AI provides is neither consistently useful nor even consistently accurate. There is also a good deal of concern over copyright protection and what data any generative AI is trained on, which some countries in Europe at the very least are taking steps to address legally.
Please reconsider.
09-09-2024 12:33 PM
Honestly, it's not so useful for me. I'd like a call to just ChatGPT in the sidebar. I never simplify anything, nor quiz myself. Well, just call GPT in the sidebar and that's it. It just didn't work for me somehow.
09-09-2024 12:37 PM
Here's my feedback, and I'm going to be as delicate as possible so as to not sound too angry. AI is a scam, but not only is it a scam, it is tech that rips off writers, artists, and developers not in the hundreds, not in the thousands, but in the millions. It was bad enough that every company has latched onto this and decided that they need some kind of glossy plagiarism tech, but now Mozilla wants in on it, too? The people who are making a browser that's supposed to be all about privacy, and info security. You're introducing a bot that scrapes data without consent, into your browser? I cannot think of a worse way to commit corporate suicide.
Not only do I not want this, but I think anyone involved in making the decision to develop and integrate this, should be fired, and blacklisted from ever working in FOSS, or tech in-general, ever again.
That's what I think.
09-09-2024 12:39 PM
I do not want this no thank you, I'd just like sidepanels.
If someone wants AI then they can add it to their sidepanel.
09-09-2024 12:39 PM
AI does not belong in a privacy-oriented browser.
No promised about upholding privacy made by AI third-parties can possibly be trusted by any reasonable person.
For the love of everything that's still good in this industry, grow a spine and make an ethical decision of not supporting dangerous hype which has no actual societal value.
I'm sure that this is an opinion shared by a lot of people who have been using Mozilla's products and are still clinging to the idea that Mozilla can be fair it its userbase.
09-09-2024 12:41 PM
Absolutely not. Do not go down that path, please, it's literally unnecessary, AI is not a good idea.
09-09-2024 12:43 PM
Please don't follow this trend. This push for AI serves nothing besides the interests of a few tech companies desperate to find a way to monetize their useless and expensive product. Don't fall for it, please...
09-09-2024 12:46 PM
Please stop adding useless AI "features". AI has, and continues, to provide poor, incorrect, and even harmful information. Not to mention the rampant theft and plagiarism in the art sector, and the frankly disturbing environmental damage from electricity usage.
Please focus on making your user experience better, not actively worse.
09-09-2024 12:47 PM
Please no 🙏🏻
You have a beautiful project. Why soil it with IA dumbsh*t ?
09-09-2024 12:51 PM
Please do not ever add AI to any aspect of Firefox. It could be an add-on (NOT installed by default) so that those of us who do not want to interact with it can avoid it entirely.
Other folks in these comments have argued more eloquently about the environmental, personal, privacy, and technical issues; all I will say is that Firefox is one of the last of the major "clean" browsers and it would be very upsetting to lose it.
09-09-2024 12:53 PM
"AI" has no actual practical uses for anything that anyone would ever want to use firefox for. plus,the majority of people whom i know use firefox are the sorts of people to be vehemently against these sorts of uses of machine learning, and so would not only not want or benefit from this, but may actively search out alternatives to firefox because of this
09-09-2024 12:56 PM
as a longtime user of firefox, adding this feature essentially beats the purpose of using firefox. stop chasing the market. we're here because we're against it!
09-09-2024 12:56 PM - edited 09-10-2024 04:46 AM
Why though?
Generative AI is the unholy trinity. It's profoundly wasteful from an environmental sense, it's based entirely around leeching massive amounts of unattributed, unverified data, and the results are unreliable to the point of being useless.
Worse than useless, actually. It is far preferable to give no answer to a question, than to confidently provide the wrong one; see the actual cases of actual people getting actual poisoning from buying mushroom foraging books, not realising they were AI generated. AI slop is nothing but confidently-provided bull, an advanced Markov generator spitting out words that look vaguely right with no understanding of what's actually being said. Any resemblance to actual useful information is entirely coincidental. It's a scam, and you are falling for it.
This is waste of your time to work on, and my storage space to install. It also reduces my trust in the browser; no matter how much you profess otherwise, I would always be worried you are having the browser yank everything I'm typing to shove into the AI garbage pile.
If you really, really have to do this (and you really, really don't), shove it in an extension. No-one will download it, and that will be for the best for everyone involved.
Edit: In fact, this is the push I've needed to move on from base Firefox. Floorp gives me all the basic Firefox goodness, some nifty new features, and no AI garbage. Lovely.
09-09-2024 12:55 PM
Absolutely not. This would turn me off from using Firefox anymore.
09-09-2024 12:57 PM
I absolutely do not want this. I don't care if it's optional I don't what that to be something you are spending money on when there are almost certainly better services that money could be spent on.
09-09-2024 12:59 PM
Hi,
Please keep Firefox clean and healthy, no AI-powered features.
Thank you very much.
09-09-2024 01:01 PM
Please, don't **bleep**ing put AI into firefox. I dont wanna switch browsers again because you needed to put AI into yours.
09-09-2024 01:02 PM
As a years old user of Firefox (who ditched Chrome in their desktop to use that browser again), NOPE.
We don't want something as harmful as AI being shoved into us more than it already did, and Mozilla doesn't need to tarnish its reputation as an open source software that claims to care about privacy.
09-09-2024 01:04 PM
The appeal of firefox is that it seems mostly opposed to harmful corporate trends. Like its incredible adblocker options. AI is an incredibly harmful corporate trend in its current state. Its full of misinformation and most often works by stealing instead of learning or pulling random data that is popular and equating that to factual. No AI please.
09-09-2024 01:04 PM - edited 09-09-2024 01:09 PM
Integration of any kind of AI features into Firefox is necessarily NOT going to be 'private by design'. It's absolutely antithetical to the Mozilla Manifesto, and-- furthermore-- NO-ONE WANTS IT. The people who have used Firefox for years do so because it's one of the few reasonably private browser options left, because it's user-friendly and customisable. PLEASE don't undermine your entire ethos by adding AI.
Even aside from the ethical considerations, the fact that every single programme I use is now trying to hawk its ~new AI tools at me is *maddening*. I don't want any of them.
09-09-2024 01:05 PM
Do not do this. This is not an improvement; it is theft. Theft of peoples' creations, and theft of resources.
AI is not compatible with ethical computer use.
09-09-2024 01:10 PM - edited 09-09-2024 01:16 PM
I created an account just so I could reply to this issue.
I've used Firefox since it was Netscape. I remember when Mozilla was formed. I used Phoenix, I used all the variations. I've been here since the start.
The recent trends of Mozilla leadership have been nothing short of appalling.
We do not want AI in the browser. We do not want ads or suggestions in the browser. We want a browser to view the Internet. We want a browser that isn't tied to tracking our every movement on the Internet in order to sell us something. If I wanted to support the ad industry I'd run Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox is literally one of 3 choices. You have Chrome, which most people are using, and tracks their every movement for Google. Safari, which is only a option if you live in the Apple walled garden. Mozilla Firefox, which is the last choice, and has the fewest users on the Internet, and with this change soon to be fewer. My goal is to continue using Mozilla Firefox as I believe in the goals of the Mozilla organization, especially this one "The things we create prioritize people and their privacy over profits.". But lately it seems that just like Google with "Don't be Evil" these are just words used to bring in users and not the companies actual stance.
AI is trash. AI hurts everybody who creates. AI hurts the planet. You have a choice, join the slop factory, or build a better future for the web.
Further, actually live the words you were built on. Trust and Privacy need to be at the forefront of your activities. Quit following the tech trends! Build good software and believe in your mission.
09-09-2024 04:46 PM
I agree with you completely and I swear I'm not trying to be a weird internet pedant, I just think it's very funny that Microsoft Edge (which of course has AI garbage in it now) is entirely omitted from this post as One Of The Browsers That Exists(TM). ROASTED. Cemented in its place as an eternal afterthought, as it deserves, lol
09-09-2024 01:10 PM
Do not do this. AI is incredibly destructive for the environment, spits out total inaccuracies and is fed by stolen works.
Firefox was the final refuge against Chrome's search function dumpster fire.
Do Not Use AI.
09-09-2024 01:11 PM
Definitely not a fan of the AI services. I haven't found them to be useful, and if they summarize a search I have to double check websites anyway to make sure the information is actually correct. And then what's the point of it being there at all? It's just not reliable.
09-09-2024 01:12 PM
As an average user of Firefox, why on earth would you do this. why would Mozilla see the outpouring of rage and anger towards generative AI of all types and then decide "You know what this browser that is designed for browsing the internet needs? A slew of unreliable and unethical AI Chatbots developed and designed by 3rd party corporations."?
09-09-2024 01:12 PM
PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS! Firefox is supposed to be simple and private. AI is not. Don't do this.
09-09-2024 01:13 PM
absolutely not. i'm tired of ai eating creativity and hurting the planet, don't contribute to this nightmare.
09-09-2024 01:15 PM
I am very much not interested in this feature and it being implemented with no way to completely and totally disable it would result in me looking for a new browser.
I am not against this being implemented, but it absolutely must come with a way to completely disable all AI features in a clean, easy-to-manage setting.
09-09-2024 01:16 PM
I've been using Firefox because I value privacy, and AI is not that. Other commenters have already explained why. Please don't integrate it.
09-09-2024 01:17 PM
I do not want AI integrations of any kind in Firefox. I don't think there is a good use case for such a feature and I have no interest in ever using it. Plain and simple, abandon this pursuit and do not implement it!
09-09-2024 01:19 PM
No, thanks! I don't see any reason for AI to be everywhere just because it's the new fad. I use Firefox to avoid this kinda stuff.
09-09-2024 01:21 PM
Ai will die quickly and it will be used just as much as Spotify dj feature which has a user base of five this is a dumb decision that will drive people away from this application
09-09-2024 01:22 PM
No on principle. No genAI. I use Librewolf, which IIRC is based on Firefox, and I don't want this kind of bull**bleep** to trickle down to me.
09-09-2024 01:22 PM
The Mozilla manifesto (emphasis mine):
Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.
How does this square with making LLMs more accessible when they tell people to eat glue and do other dangerous things on the regular? This is a clear reduction in safety.