Share your feedback on the AI services experiment in Nightly

[asafko]

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!

[slowpokedragon]

NO GODDAMN AI! i swear to god if this is the direction firefox is going im gonna switch to linux. jesus **bleep**ing christ. youre gonna lose a **bleep**load of users this way! what is WRONG with your executives? all they see is the hypothetical money signs and ignore their actual customers, users, and clients going "no, we do not want this!"

[Feral]

Others have already said it much better than I could.  AI doesn't belong in a browser that has previously touted itself as a privacy-conscious alternative to the  increasingly **bleep**ty corporate internet.   I don't care if it's something I can "just opt out of" - that's what they all say as they load more and more spyware and tracking junk onto or phones, computers, and everything we have to interact with in the digital realm. Very disappointed with the direction Mozilla is heading.  

[CattoGattito]

Please do not add any AI in firefox. 

[DarkGoddessDoll]

Firefox as a browser and mozilla as a company stand for privacy, which is why so many of us use it, because we value our privacy. The way I have seen AI gather data and output things has massive privacy risks. There's no currently ethical way to incorporate AI into a browser or search engine.

I know that myself and others have moved from browsers and search engines that incorporated AI because of the concerns we had.

[SmilingDemon]

Yeah, that will be a no.

How about working on QoL features like tab groups, or core features like expanding coverage of CSS? Rather than just chasing hype. Leave extension developers to provide AI integration for those who really desperately want to burn a load of energy to create an image or a load of text without any thought.

[dazzlepansy]

No, thank you.

[MangoMoony]

It's a good thing I read the replies first before bothering to invest multiple minutes of my time to give some proper feedback with sources, stats and studies. Because not only have others done this multiple times, the reaction of the Mozilla team also shows that anything that isn't endorsement is unwanted.

As such, I save myself my valuable time and just repeat the important part that others have also said:
If you - opt-in or not - implement AI into the base browser in any way, shape or form, then I will abandon Firefox. Doesn't matter that I used it for nearly 15 years now, on all devices. I have always been quick to recommend your browser for withstanding the pressure of chromium, ad-sellers and 'bloatification'. Perhaps it was naive to think you guys will remain stalwart against nonsense like this.

I recommend your leadership board members to really think about their next step, because you are standing at a fork right now, and this WILL make or break your neck. Many people invested a lot of time and work into recommending and advertising and even financially supporting you and thus may be tempted to overlook many a bad decision. But once the negative outweighs the positive - and literally world-destroying, property-stealing programs like chatGPT WILL be a line many will not cross for the sake of a BROWSER - , they will leave regardless and you will never regain that trust. Unity lost its entire costumer base with one dumb decision, Wizards of the Coast almost did it until they backpaddled and in fact moved the opposite way as apology.

If you believe that you will attract more with AI than you will lose, then that is your choice to make. I hope for your sake that you make the right one, because every user definitely will make their own as well, whether you like it or not.

[ehud1564]

Please do not do this!

[Thehybrid2914]

Please don't

[catboyteeth]

I am begging you not to do this

[JPenuchot]

How did Mozilla figure this feature would be popular among users? There are already a few AI extensions for Firefox, none of them was able to reach even 3k users. uBlock Origin is at 8 million.

[seeingteacup]

No one wants this. What is this even supposed to do?

You ask if it's a helpful addition. You do not say what it's supposed to even help with. Come on. You know this isn't useful.

[Atrus2000]

Absolutely not, as most AI/LLMs are unethical and huge electricity sinks, and there is no possible way that you're not aware of this. This sort of move is not how you get more users to try Firefox by jumping on the buzzword of the moment, it's how you lose what little dedicated audience you have left. People who use Firefox do it because they believe in what it stands for. If you're just going to be OK with stealing data and burning down the planet, we might as well use Chrome.

[krozruch]

JUST DON'T.

[fairywrenss]

Set up a forum profile just to complain about this – even regardless of my own (negative) opinions on generative AI, I dislike the idea of these kinds of additions being baked into the browser. If a user wants AI integration/easy access/whatever, then install an add-on for it. I use Firefox because it's easy to use and its additions are privacy focused; if Firefox starts adding fluff like this I'll look for another browser.

[am1t]

It's a nice feature and an idea in principle.

However, there are problems with the implementation that prevent me from using it:

1. There is no indication of which models are local-only, which models send data to 3rd party services, which models are based on free/open source software.

2. A checkbox to limit the selection to preferred service types: local only + does not send data outside + FOSS that limits the options available from the dropdown will help ensure I have the right model for my usecase.

It's more likely I will use this service if these are implemented.

[nobody1]

No.

"Make accessing our favorite tools and services in Firefox even easier" by removing unnecessary and dangerous stuff, thank you very much.

[Nett]

What would the purpose of this even be? You ask to test to see if it would be a helpful feature, which means you dont even have a specific use in mind. Adding something like this will bloat the browser, one that people go to because it doesn't pull all of the nonsense that other browsers do. Adding AI would lose that trust from your users

[Egg]

Please do not do this! AI wastes a lot of water and energy, besides the fact that, as we've seen, AI results on Chrome are utter garbage!

[StopTheMadness]

No. AI is built on STOLEN material, and it lies. It doesn't create, it doesn't give you an answer, it writes what it thinks you want to read and makes the rest up. You're the last good browser, please don't ruin it with the brainless plagiarism machine. This isn't an improvement, this is horrible. I'm already looking at other browsers DO NOT TAINT AND POISON A GOOD THING!

[inariforfirefox]

i think the ROI on this is pretty dismal. it's like trying to jump on betamax. even if this incarnation of AI were really feasible in the long-term, i think you get more clout from your userbase (and potential new users) by avoiding it entirely.

[yoneda-emma]

I made an account here entirely just to say "please don't do this, if you do I will immediately start looking for an alternative browser that doesn't have this"

[GrinningGhoulie]

No thank you, I like Mozilla being AI free. In fact that is the very reason why I have it.. 😞

[rarsneezes]

No, thank you! Based on how AI services like ChatGPT affect the environment, I'm not going to even touch it.

[quameronspider]

NO THANK YOU 

[Candy111]

I would like to respectfully state that no AI services should be introduced to Firefox. Introducing AI to Firefox would lead to bloat and degradation of crucial browsing experience due to slowdown and performance loss.

In addition AI itself should never be a development priority to Firefox because it will lead to a scope creep and redirection of resources from more crucial areas

[goldenbonnies]

Please, god, NO. NO NO NO. I will stop using Firefox and switch to some underground browser with less than a hundred users over this. DO NOT ADD AI. NOBODY WANTS AI. STOP IT.

[Troyseph]

This would convince me to leave Firefox

[Soudaiya]

Not interested,  the Ai I've seen from other browsers is chock full of incorrect information and makes it much harder to find what I'm actually looking for.

[amoroso]

I wouldn't personally use AI features at all. And, given the resources of Mozilla, such features couldn't compete with those of tech giants anyway. I'd prefer Mozilla to focus its limited resources on something that has a major positive impact on everyday use like Firefox performance, especially on Linux.

NOT having AI features would actually be a unique differentiator and cost much less.

[KainTheMando]

AI has proven to have a massively negative environmental impact. Additionally, it relies entirely on stolen material scraped without consent and frequently provides incorrect and even dangerous information. Firefox would be better served WITHOUT AI, and the incorporation of AI would dramatically reduce my usage of the browser. I like Firefox BECAUSE it doesn't have AI incorporated into it.

[Luckless]

If this goes through to the stable branch I'll be moving to a fork or a new browser altogether. Aside from the ethical concerns of AI and the fact of hallucinations causing dangerous misinformation. You are adding a new attack surface to the entire userbases devices for the "benefit" of an comparably tiny portion of users. It doesn't matter that it is currently disabled by default, it could be triggered by bad actors, accidentally turned on through an automatic update, or one of these terrible AI companies might have a data breach or sell the data themselves. This is a horrendous idea that goes against your userbases values, and the responses by employees in this thread are quite disappointing.

[SweetSageTea]

I'd really rather you not, thank you. A lot of people are morally opposed to AI being used in most any capacity. It's a passing trend and your user base would really appreciate if you didn't hop on the bandwagon on this one.

Thanks

[Vanastar]

I don't want AI added to the experience of using Firefox. I won't use it. It's unnecessary.

And I especially don't want it if it uses any data I input as training, or scrapes that data to pass on to third parties.

[Bob5]

Please don't. There's already way too much AI going around which is useless and an ecological nightmare and I don't want to use it, have it, be forced to use it or persuaded to see if I might just want to try it out coz maybe I might like it. The faster (generative) AI dies, the better.

[wutongtaiwan]

Is AI really that scary, it was bombarded with mailboxes yesterday and today

[Mowinckel107]

The most cited researcher in the world compares large language models to nuclear weapons and global pandemics.

Dear god stop. Now. It is energy hungry unethical behavior to use dangerous and useless tools

[C_C_]

Aside from all the issues with genAI i'm certain others have already mentioned, as well as the fact that this is entirely unasked for, I must ask: what value, exactly, is this supposed to bring? What great use do we have for an integrated AI feature that we can't easily get, if we really need it, from elsewhere? I mean, AI doesn't work as a search engine. A lot of email services and other platforms already have integrated AI to summarise things and other such tasks, if needed. Who are these supposed users who intensely need AI so often and so much and for so many things (that don't already have AI) that it would benefit them to have it right on the browser, and what do they do?

And are we certain these people are not imaginary?

[NetCat]

Absolutely the f- not.
This adds zero value to your product and guarantees I will switch away from it. As C_C_ said, there's no use for it. As Luckless says, its a new attack surface with the bonus features of hallucinating information and a severe ethical issue to go with! Wretched idea.

[2mucheffort]

No need to add ai. it's useless at best, harmful at worst and most of the time just creepy. Adding AI will make me less likely to keep using Firefox. No thanks.