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!

[jku]

what possible benefit could this provide? Gen AI responses are inaccurate, unreliable, intrusive, and extremely wasteful of resources. adding an AI button would be to disregard the experience of a typical Firefox user in favour of some transient investor incentive.

[Rukmau]

I don't have the energy to elaborate too much right now (sorry), but I would prefer no AI tool additions to Firefox. I love this browser already, and I don't think AI tools will improve the experience considering what an all-around nightmare they are (ethically, environmentally, etc.). I avoid using anything that adds generative AI to it, because it has a tendency to make up information while being a general waste of energy; inclusion of this sort of feature endorses something which is rather antithetical to why people use Firefox (as many users are pointing out). Generative AI (LLMs) work by scraping massive amounts of data off the web that people did not consent to give, and is opposite the privacy many use Firefox for.

I hope I'm not too late to comment, but since the thread is still open, I feel it's worth my 2 cents.

[Shakibone]

Please do not implement these exploitative flavour of the month scams.

[Nykterosea]

Not interested. The reason I use Firefox to begin with is to control my own privacy and user experience. "AI services" appears to just mean "chatbots" rather than any of the specific tasks they may actually be potentially useful for, and they are resource-intensive, ethically-questionable, user-unfriendly, and perhaps most importantly, non-user-unfriendly by making the internet a less valuable resource whether I use them or not.

[kwildfon]

I'm not entirely comfortable with using AI services for multiple reasons, particularly because the amount of energy this technology takes to run... while it doesn't seem to provide much actual added utility or benefit users significantly at all.

[Dakkath]

How about we don't, instead? LLM 'ai' is nothing but a gigantic money sink, devastating the environment, and impossible to train without stealing data. It's a trillion-dollar solution that doesn't solve any actual problems, let alone trillion-dollar ones.

[SourceJD]

cut the AI crap. i use firefox because it doesn't have AI clients. if this were added, i wouldn't update firefox, or try finding another browser to use.

[belle]

Hard pass, the entire reason I'm on Firefox is because it doesn't do **bleep** like this.

[hadtoregister]

Yeah, this implies that something fundamental has changed. No service stays trustworthy forever, so if the other shoe is dropping... welp, it was a good run.

[TieflingKisser]

Absolutely NOT! The people who are drawn to using Firefox are largely the same people who are looking to get away from this stuff in other browsers. Generative "AI" is based on intellectual theft and data harvesting, exactly why I moved away from Chrome in the first place! I would hate to have to find another browser but I refuse to deal with that garbage.

[TieflingKisser]

Frankly, given how overwhelming the vitriol against AI has been for months, I find it very worrying that Firefox would even consider adding such a thing.

[En1t]

Respectfully, I don't think that it would be a good idea to add.  AI is notoriously inconsistant, especially when you look at such ai as Google's, which at this point only give out false information.  Please do NOT add an ai feature to Firefox.

[N-Grimley]

Oh, please don't. The lack of AI nonsense was part of the reason I loved Firefox. AI contributes so much to the spread of misinformation (AI cannot be trusted to not "hallucinate" information) and disenfranchisement of low level creative workers. It's not a good tool or asset for 99% of people and should not be considered or tried out as something built in to any browser. There's enough AI nonsense out there already without you jumping into this fetid pool of garbage too. Such a betrayal of the internet browsing experience I've come to expect from Firefox!

[fyespiex3]

Please keep AI features away from Firefox. Firefox is the last place where we're safe from this garbage. No Ai please, I beg you

[sapphyr_jay]

Please keep AI far away from Firefox! It’s annoying more than it is useful and one of Firefox’s strong points is that it is not bloated down with AI like its competitors. Please reconsider adding AI to Firefox it will alienate a lot of your loyal users!

[elseabass]

No. AI is environmentally disastrous, morally dubious, and, oftentimes, just plain wrong. Beyond useless. 

[afishwhodreams]

Absolutely not.

[Fenderblitz]

I use firefox specifically so i dont have ai (and also for better privacy features)  no one wants this.  Your market share is already low do bot alienate users just because bigwigs see the word ai and lose their mind.

[hadtoregister]

Please don't do this. This sounds like imminent monetization and selling data (because there's no trust on my part with AI); it definitely would be using unethically sourced data, and legitimizing/enabling further content theft on the part of the services that are scraping data to fuel this sort of thing. You're supposed to be against this sort of thing. That's why you're the browser I use. If that's changed, I can move on.

[EthanTrees]

Hell no. I don't want AI on Firefox, that's why I switched to it. Please keep it the only functional browser and abstain from pointless AI taskbars and "helpers" that I will never use and will invariably turn off. If you implement this long-term, I will start looking to switch to another browser.

[Mmundt]

Please please please no. Literally one of the reasons I started using Firefox was to get away from the AI. I'm an engineer and I know how useful AI can be, but it is not a useful feature in a search engine, and actively makes search engines more difficult to use. Even though this feature is optional, I fear that once it is implemented, it will end up being everywhere / not optional. Additionally, AI in search engines wasted So much water and energy and simply is not practical (esp when the only options are Always On or Always Off, rather than only using it for specific searches). Please do not do this!! Even though I won't use it, I will know that it is there!!! 

[bilbo27]

Just don't. No one wants AI integration. I think that's been shown enough now. Just sand us all the bother

[FullmoonDagger]

No thanks ! AI is not good nor needed ! Let's keep focusing on what makes this browser great: the privacy, customisation and ditch this trendy AI nonsense that pollutes the web we know and love

[nicknikola]

Absolutely not a fan of this. The lack of AI is mainly why I've loved Firefox so far. If AI got added I would look for another browser and not look back.

[Sunday-Saturn]

Please don’t do this

[enistello]

Please don't. "AI" is an environmental disaster. By using machine learning, users are burning natural resources for tiny gains in the form of minor convenience they could live without.

Adding this functionality to Firefox accelerates the rate of carbon production.

There are better ways of increasing the browser's share of the market. I propose: 1. Slashing your C-suite's compensation packages by 80%. 2. Spending the recouped cost on advertising the browser.

[Misila]

No.

You integrate AI, I stop using Firefox. And judging by the other replies I'm far from the only one.

[reillypascal]

Please DO NOT add this feature to Firefox. I've used and loved this browser for decades, and I appreciate that it's a genuine alternative to the Chromium-dominated browser landscape. As a privacy-conscious user and a musician I am not OK with how recent AI tools handle privacy or the intellectual property of creative professionals.

[genericuser]

Please don't do this. I too moved to Firefox to avoid all the AI and privacy nonsense that other browsers have started to employ. I like Firefox, but I'll leave it behind too if this is implemented.

[mermer]

No AI please 🙏🙏 

[mraefree]

I'm not going to try the feature first because there is no correct way to implement it. "AI" additions to web browsers are entirely unethical and it is very disappointing that Firefox is jumping on a ridiculous trend like this.

[Courtell]

The comment section is toxic.

[AndCat]

No please. AI is a blight and I'd hate to move browsers to escape it here. I've been a Firefox user for over 10 years and it's my go to.

[Syd13]

No!

[Syd13]

I can think of no logical or useful reason that a browser or search engine could need the equivalent of a zonked out stoner spouting useless and easily influenced bs at you. AI does not really come free and for a company so allegedly into the idea of user privacy this is kind of concerning to ask, you do understand this?

[reservoircat]

No. No no no no no. I can't believe I have to tell this to y'all of all companies, but this is a terrible idea. It leaves so so many security weaknesses for personal information, intellectual property, and privacy, even being opt-in. Stop it.

[dizzyzz]

Hey I think it's good that this is optional at max but I don't think there should be any classic AI integration tools, just because it's a buzzword in tech doesn't mean it's reasonable enough to rely on. I've respected Mozilla for being information forward and this feels like a step in the wrong direction. I do not want this feature.

[zingogh]

Please do not incorporate AI I'm begging you. I think I'm speaking for everyone here when I say we're tired of it being shoved down our throats every second. It's unreliable and unethical and I can assure you so many people will move on to different browsers if it's implemented. Keep it out of our search engines it's unnecessary and harmful.

[callhmc]

I love not having AI on Firefox. The Google AI results thing is terrible. I prefer all the results that I am shown to have come from human beings.

[Skribbly]

I notice many hate comments. What they don't understand is that the unethical part of the AI isn't the AI itself, but the companies that host it. That's why I prefer to use local AI.

Can support be added for Ollama? That currently seems to be the easiest local LLM service to set up, so I'm sure many users would appreciate it.

Even if you end up integrating your own version of Ollama into the browser (another GUI has done this), I would prefer this to be optional, similar to the optional local language translation. I'd like to use the Ollama instance I already have set up.

I'm alright right now, as the Page Assist browser extension handles this behaviour, but it would be nice to have this built in to the browser for more streamlined design and optimization.

EDIT:

I agree with others that this should be entirely optional, knowing that the default would likely be one of the unethical company hosted LLMs.

I think that this should be an opt-in type thing, meaning that it is off by default.