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!
09-12-2024 11:08 AM
My #1 concern when it comes to integrating AI into something like a browser is that I fundamentally do not trust any company to be responsible when it comes to sucking up huge quantities of user data and protecting user privacy. Almost every genAI model was trained on stolen data or data used without the permission/awareness of its creator. And the companies making these models are untrustworthy when it comes to disclosing where they get their training data and how they're using user data they collect. We've already seen incredibly invasive **bleep** like Microsoft's Recall that will feed every single thing you do or type on your computer into their AI model training pipeline. Every prompt or query you enter into an AI chatbot becomes data for it to learn from.
Not to mention the detrimental effect of massive AI datacenters on our climate. For example.
09-11-2024 11:39 PM
NO
09-12-2024 12:02 AM
It is nice for people who use it.
09-12-2024 12:53 AM
I'm already suffering from AI exhaustion. I'll also be looking up how to lock my firefox version if this gets implemented.
09-12-2024 01:13 AM
These optional things to 'try out' tend to become permanent things that we can no longer opt out of. AI features will truly make me look at using another browser.
The use of AI is unrefined to the point of being a hazard to those seeking genuine help and information. It's currently being used to cheaply replace paid creative roles across the world. The energy consumption tied to the development and usage of AI is unethical as well.
Please don't go down this road.
09-12-2024 01:33 AM
I do not think AI would be a useful addition to Firefox in the least. Would very much prefer to not have this, especially given how ethically problematic AI is in how it is trained and how it effects the environment. I also believe that it would increase the problem of misinformation. So, even if optional, I don't see any up-sides to this new feature.
09-12-2024 10:33 AM
Firefox has been my single refuge on the internet from the rapid and forced implementation of all this AI nonsense to every single product and application. I am PLEADING that you reconsider this addition, and that you continue to allow Firefox to act as an oasis for people who do not want to deal with every company on planet earth forcing this stuff down our throats.
09-12-2024 10:37 AM
I have no interest in this feature. Mozilla's lack of involvement with AI or cryptocurrency is why I use this browser. If this feature is implemented I will switch to an independent browser that does not support AI.
09-12-2024 10:38 AM
Not interested in AI integration with the browser.
09-12-2024 10:38 AM
Nah, if AI gets added I'll be dropping Firefox along with the Mozilla services I pay for. Doesn't matter if it has an off switch, we all know that gets removed later.
09-12-2024 10:40 AM
GenAI is not something I ever want to see in Firefox, not only is GenAi horrible for the environment, it is rarely much more effective than standard models as is, and thus far has shown to be much more prone to misinformation.
You've been doing so well Mozilla, please don't fall down the GenAI well of trash.
09-12-2024 10:49 AM
Nowadays it seems like AI is already forcefully built into everything else on the web. I use Firefox because it's *not* Google/Microsoft/Apple/other BS tech company. Even as an optional feature it's symbolic of feature creep, and I want no part of it. AI is currently in a state too premature to be useful, it's just being implemented everywhere because it's trendy, and it's absolutely ruining the Internet right now (and the environment, let's not forget *that* fun addition to the equation).
Another vote for "no to AI" in Firefox.
09-12-2024 11:14 AM
no. please.
the internet is becoming more useless with every new introduction of this "AI" stuff. Please. Firefox is one of the only places left where i dont have "AI" being shoved down my throat. Don't be like the other bastards and outlive them instead. Please exist outside and beyond this POS era of the Mediocre Machine, do the right thing, and put humans and human users first.
please please i am begging for real
09-12-2024 11:31 AM
In my experience, AI in search engines are worse than useless and I actively avoid using them. It's a nice way to quicken the spread of misinformation.
09-12-2024 11:43 AM
do not do this. i will stop using firefox if you do.
09-12-2024 11:51 AM
Please remove this
09-12-2024 11:58 AM
no!!
09-12-2024 12:01 PM
Please, do not integrate any AI. It has pretty bad environmental effects, and basically just spits out word salad that it thinks you want based on how often words are seen together. Adding AI would disappoint a large amount of users.
09-12-2024 12:07 PM
Hi! If you do this, I will immediately change browser to someone else who doesn't have LLMs involved in their browser. No. Take it away. Under no circumstances should this be here. This will cause you to lose users. Do not do it.
09-12-2024 12:13 PM
Mozilla has truly lost their way if they think AI should be integrated in Firefox. Absolutely NOT. It goes against everything I want from Firefox. We want privacy and customisation not anti-privacy AI-slop which was created with stolen work and worsens climate change. Stop trying to be chrome. Getting very sick of Firefox trying to be the same mainstream garbage that we're use firefox to avoid. AI is a plague.
09-12-2024 12:32 PM
i'm not sure why something so antithetical to the long-held values mozilla has espoused is being considered like this. the environmental impact, the waste of energy and computer components, the security issues, the theft of others' work, the gross misinformation--any one of these should be enough to prevent you from making this decision in the first place. as it's not, i can only hope the financial impact of the number of people who will leave for another browser will do what ethics is not.
i'm ABSOLUTELY going to be one of those people, if it wasn't clear.
09-12-2024 12:35 PM
Can we stop with the idea that this A.I. is something the users want? Don't want it, will never need it. End of Story.
09-12-2024 12:55 PM
Please Please dont implement or try this.
09-12-2024 01:02 PM
Oh please no. AI is such a mess, expensive garbage in my opinion. Please keep it away from my beloved Firefox.
09-12-2024 01:11 PM
Absolutely not. Why do you want to waste money on something that's actively destructive to the environment and detrimental to user experience? Just hire people to answer questions instead of shelling out for a hallucinating language-approximation machine that has no functional concept of what facts are.
09-12-2024 01:12 PM
PLEASE NO THIS IS WHERE I GO TO AVOID AI
09-12-2024 01:14 PM
No ai please and thank you! Do not want any of that garbage! Ranges from dubiously correct to actively harmful!
09-12-2024 01:34 PM
PLEASE don't. You can always add an extension to the browser if you ever need one. I use Firefox specifically BECAUSE it doesn't have AI interfaces. PLEASE DON'T. It's useless!!
09-12-2024 01:37 PM
Absolutely not. No AI!! We don't need it, and especially not shoved into our browser.
09-12-2024 01:46 PM
Please no
09-12-2024 02:15 PM
Please do not implement AI into this browser. I do not want or need "helpful" features that do not actually do any substantive work that I was already going to do and do better. I do not want my search data or settings or other data points potentially collected or otherwise known about from an AI company or third party. I do not want AI involved in any way with my Firefox experience as a user. This project has been really really important for maintaining privacy and security for the masses--we do not want it to begin to erode with AI, which is what will happen, because that is all AI does, erode working structures and experiences. Please do not implement AI into Firefox.
09-12-2024 02:19 PM
Please do not add AI to tye platform, it is a fad that not only gives you wrong information that could kill someone, but is killing the planet
09-12-2024 02:25 PM
Absolutely not. I already struggle to get actually reliable service from browsers and search engines (required use of chrome in a workplace environment) so for the love of god KEEP the unmoderated and thieving AI out of my Firefox. Please let me have one device I don’t have to fight a straightforward function out of. Please. DO NOT INTEGRATE AI INTO FIREFOX PRODUCTS
09-12-2024 02:26 PM - edited 09-12-2024 03:45 PM
It's what everyone does, and it's effectively a "we also got AI" gimmick with minimal value. A low hanging fruit, but this fruit is not tasty. I think it's why this discussion is full of all those "please, just don't" comments.
I would understand bringing back meaning to the term "User Agent" using new technologies. I would welcome an ability to command Firefox in a natural language and let the machine autonomously reach the desired outcome, figuring it out and doing all the routine stuff on its own with minimal supervision. E.g. checking every every listing on a marketplace that doesn't offer proper filters, reading descriptions and reviews, and adding products matching given criteria to a shopping list. An ability to command something like "Go to $store and find me three cheapest USB-C cables that are standards compliant and support DisplayPort Alt Mode. Open each other in a new tab for me to review." and have it done would be a welcome feature, especially for spammy stores with limited filter capabilities, like Amazon. Or, you know, "cancel that $website account, for real" and let machine fight through all the "if you really really really want to cancel" nuisances. Maybe even a persistent assistance mode with "for every spammy popup auto-dismiss it ASAP", although latency is probably not going to allow this without tiny highly specialized popup-detecting models.
I admit, giving a language model control over the browser is a questionable thing that some may dare while others may loathe. If implemented, it must be strictly opt-in and with everything fully disabled and thus safe by default. It could also eventually lead to potential abuse, like scummy websites hiding instructions to ignore all instructions and making a big "donation" - so if implemented it would make sense to go fully supervised at first, with safeguards and isolated sanity checks for eventual unsupervised mode. All this said, it could be probably best if any automation ("AI" or not) would be left completely external to Firefox, using something like WebDriver BiDi to interop with the browser. As long as Firefox provides all the necessary APIs for external programs to "see" and control, with reasonable and granular access safeguards, and good documentation, projects will follow.
Something like that has an theoretical ability to potentially disrupt the established status quo, empowering end-users to fight against dark patterns, en**bleep**tification and constant UI changes for the sake of UI changes through user-controled automation. At least it's probably won't be a complete waste of computing resources. A sidebar with ChatGPT (or Claude or whatever) won't help. It could save a few clicks, but is not a meaningful improvement.
Just my 2 cents.
09-12-2024 02:37 PM
If ai is fully integrated into firefox I'll probably switch browsers.
09-12-2024 02:39 PM
generative AI is becoming an inescapable nuisance across the entire internet. it would be so, so, so fantastic if firefox wasn't yet another place that I have to try to avoid annoying AI features. it's a misinformation generator, why would you include it in the browser?
09-12-2024 02:42 PM
I think it's awful. AI has been forced into every program I use and as a long-time Firefox user I would be greatly disappointed if this were pushed into core functionality of the program. I've so far appreciated how Firefox hasn't done this, and hopeful it will be scrapped.
09-12-2024 02:48 PM
Even if it's completely optional, it's a dangerous precedent to set to integrate any sort of AI into Firefox at all. We've seen nothing but a degradation of services from every service that tries to integrate AI, and Firefox has been a bastion against that en**bleep**tification. Even from a purely cynical pro-AI perspective, generative AI is at it's peak with no serious longterm plan or promise, it's a money pit being sold by venture capitalists to other venture capitalists hoping to cash in before the empty promise becomes so apparent they can't milk it for any extra futuristic-sounding ad blurbs.
09-12-2024 02:55 PM
I really hope you guys start learning this. You have ignored previous feedback about other changes, and seem to totally be ignorant about what it is that brings people to firefox.
We support this browser because it IS NOT Chrome. it is NOT edge. It is not IE. We are using firefox cuz it is one of the only (not counting firefox forks which are really just earlier designs) alternatives to those.
Yet update after update, you go so hard into trying to make them look like the others,act like them, even so far as to hide away the settings and configs we need to make it act and look more like earlier. Then another update you specifically go about 'nuking' those very options which force us to find other ways.
How do we make it very clear to you that WE DO NOT WANT CHROME. WE DO NOT WANT EDGE. WE Want firefox. Why are you pushing people away by taking away the only real reason they come.
This AI discussion(which hopefully looks like you MAY FINALLY have listened, buttttt. given previous times, I am not 100% sure u have, and feel it will be slipped into it somewhere under the hood...) shows that you CAN Hear us,
SO when will you get it, we want firefox because it is firefox. We (Repeating here) DO NOT WANT CHROME, or EDGE, or IE.
Thanks for listening(maybe)...
09-12-2024 03:11 PM
Generative AI is built on the ongoing theft of creators’ art and writing without their knowledge, consent, or compensation. I am appalled that Firefox, a so-called ‘ethical’ browser, is considering amplifying AI and its harms, and becoming complicit in it.