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!

[Mardak]

Try checking Nightly for updates. It should be available with 2024-06-25 builds with settings dropdown choices of 4 providers. No personal token is necessary as the chatbot will reuse your usual tab's cookies if any, e.g., ChatGPT doesn't require a login and can reuse your login or subscription for GPT-4o "omni."

 

If you're comfortable with changing about:config, you can set "browser.ml.chat.provider" to any URL to open it in the sidebar, and if that page accepts passing in prompts with ?q=, the context menu functionality will work too. You can create your own prompts by adding a new String pref, e.g., "browser.ml.chat.prompts.a" set to "Tell me more"

 

[Mte90]

I can confirm that works 🙂

[Mte90]

The first thing that I notice that there isn't a way to close the vertical window...

The only way I found is to press Customize Sidebar that has an X so I can close the AI sidebar.

[Mardak]

Thanks for the feedback. You should be able to close it in today's Nightly with the new AI chatbot icon.

[Uberprutser]

I can close it, but I don't see how to get it back. But what the point of this sidebar?
This could be done with an extension. And I suggest you have a look how DDG annomizes chat. Because I prefer not to login with those "ai" companies.

But as long as I can easily disable the bs, and Mozilla gets a ton of money, it's acceptable. But that doesn't make it right!

[gloopsies]

Let me see if I understand this correctly: Firefox will read my browser cookies and take any OpenAI/Hugging face/whatever else tokens to use for the feature I never asked to be added to a "privacy focused" web browser?

[shakyjake]

---

@Mardak wrote:

No personal token is necessary as the chatbot will reuse your usual tab's cookies

---

CSRF as a Service? 😂

[avakining]

All generative "AI" is bad. I don't want it in my browser, OS, or anything I own.

Generative "AI" is a fad that is yet to be useful for anything -- it provides falsehoods as if they were fact and scrapes private data to train.

Adding "ai" features to Firefox not only misunderstands what people want their browsers to be for, it also detracts time and money from improving Firefox itself.

If this is kept, I will have to assume that FF is a lost cause and move to another browser.

[Mardak]

Yes, depending on the model, hallucinations or misunderstanding can be quite frequent, but even then, some people find value in having an optional AI feature readily available for situations where this type of creativity is helpful.

This feature allows for people to configure any provider and model, so hopefully we can help increase interest in training without scraping private data.

[Doug7070]

This is a terrible standpoint to take. By adding this functionality despite openly admitting that the current available options have gross ethical problems you are not promoting the idea that any of these ethical issues should be resolved, you are signaling that you consider those ethical issues to be secondary to hopping on the bandwagon. Until they can be independently verified to address all basic ethical concerns regarding AI features, none of these things should come anywhere close to being integrated by default.

[nokko]

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@Mardak wrote:

[...]

This feature allows for people to configure any provider and model, so hopefully we can help increase interest in training without scraping private data.

---

Yeah, but the ones you’ve specifically included as default options are models that do use irresponsibly scraped data. So, the message you’re sending is that you approve of rampant content theft.

This sucks.

[MageBunkshelf]

If this feature is just for "some" people who find it helpful, then this can be an extension, not a base feature. Why is your stated goal here to "increase interest in [model] training"? So this "feature" is just advertising for the plagiarism machine? Why are you adding adverts for unethical technology into the base version of the browser?

[November]

"Hallucinations" and misunderstandings" is in and of itself a misunderstanding of how LLMs work. They aren't factbots. They don't "know" things. They predict what text sounds like a plausible sentence. That's ALL they do. If they ever tell you the truth it's purely by coincidence.

[Liz]

real happy firefox is tanking its reputation for something that in your own words has a problem where "hallucinations or misunderstanding can be quite frequent".

i'm really hoping you get a good paycheck before this browser tanks for shattering user base trust.

[KDPWildwood]

Mardak, listen. Listen, man.

'Hallucinations' is a specifically chosen word meant to anthropomorphize an advanced autocorrect program. LLM chat bots do not know anything. There are no personalities or people involved. There is no hallucination. It is JUST predicting text, and that text is wrong over half the time. It is JUST a misinformation generation machine. The hype is already crashing. Stop while the hole you're digging isn't too deep.

And I shouldn't even need to say this, but there is no creativity in a LLM or an image generation program. None. There is no creativity. There is no helping people be creative. It is physically, at a base level, incapable of creativity. Arguing with that point demonstrates a misunderstanding of how these programs work.

[dedreamer]

Nobody wants this. Firefox uses too many resources on my computer as is, the last thing I want is AI wasting more of them. The whole reason I use Firefox instead of Chrome is because AI sucks.

[llliiimmmeee]

That is why it is optional, my friend.

[llliiimmmeee]

(Opt-in, to be specific, a much better policy than opt-out or forced.)

[Sztefa001]

It's not optional or opt-in or whatever, that would mean it's like an extension you can add, not an already-in-just-choose-from-menu thing. Even then it would be unethical as it would be Mozilla saying "hey, if you wanna steal from others and waste resources there's a handy littel AI addon we have!"

What we're being proposed rn is the exact same tbh, just worse 'cuz it's not a true opt-in.

[Liz]

**bleep** dude you are really hell bent on your bootlicking, huh?

[SoliTheFox]

I want this.

The feature is basically a "fork" of the official sidebar extension, so it is the same as another tab open. There's no "AI" "wasting resources" in the background.

The feature is opt-in, and even if opted-in, is only used when you actually want to use it (select text and click on a button, then it opens the sidebar on the selected provider). If you don't opt-in, select a provider, select some text and click on a button, it is not using a single bit of extra ram, or CPU.

Really recommend actually reading about and maybe exploring stuff before hating on it for free, buddy

[Sztefa001]

Pretty sure the issue about resources is not about one's specific PC but rather AI engine servers that waste a lot of water to cool down and being generally bad for environment. It's not about CPU, it's about Earth.

[sn0]

I want it. Thanks for not speaking for me on my behalf.

[JustAnyUser]

 If y'all (Mozilla) are wondering why this thread is being spammed its because an anti-ai author with a very large anti-ai following posted a link to this page on Tumblr telling them to come here and spam the thread. So, if it seems like y'all have an inorganically large amount of responses here, it's because they aren't occurring organically, its an attempt to have the feature removed because the author doesn't "believe" in the use of AI and is weaponizing their followers in response to the feature. Just thought y'all should know, this thread likely won't represent a fair cross section of average users thoughts anymore and is likely going to skew heavily toward panning this feature because of this 4000+ response post urging people to sign up to post in this thread to have the feature removed. Just thought you should know.  

[RedKobalt]

A lot of Tumblr users use Firefox and don't like AI. The post is telling them what's happening and they're speaking their mind on it. I'm one of the people who saw the post and came here to say keep that bs out of Firefox, a service I've been using for over a decade. If it weren't for the post I wouldn't of known.

[midgy]

Same! Also a tumblr user, and I have been using firefox for over a decade, and have made multiple posts on my blog and other socials promoting the usage of Firefox to friends, family, and followers over the usage of chrome, and the addition of LLM features to the browser goes against everything that I have believed and understood to be true about the brand of Firefox. I like that Firefox doesn't have LLM nonsense in it, and that it is significantly more lightweight than chromium browsers. Because of this, it runs spiffilly on my 12 year old mac, and I suspect that the addition of LLM features would significantly decrease performance on low spec hardware machines.

[Reverend-Dog]

Incorrect, at least in my case. Though I became aware of this development through the feed of a person I follow, my reaction is independent of that person's view. I have my own reasons to reject such uses of Applied Algorithms (I refuse to call it AI), and do not simply regurgitate other people's viewpoints, no matter how much I respect them.

[Slytherkins]

It's not a weaponization of followers. It's just them being on tumblr and knowing that a lot of tumblr uses firefox. They are basically just saying, 'Hey Firefox, users...do you see this **bleep**?' It's not inorganic, it's informed. It was a PSA, not a bullying campaign. This IS the firefox user base. We all use it and we all care and we would not have known there was any recourse at all otherwise because the average user doesn't hang out in wherever the **bleep** this place is. Sorry your feelings are hurt that you are in a minority, but there it is.

[Bbbbb]

This feels disengenuous as many people including me did not come from there, and have no idea who that is or their viewpoints, do randomly claiming everyone against putting a learning algorithm or "ai" into a good search engine when it has majorly messed up every other search engine that tried to incorporate it is some real bs leading stuff

[michellekb]

Is that Tumblr? I'm not on Tumblr. I still think AI sucks. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify. 

[WanderingWords]

Lol, found the ai tech bro who knows nothing about what is actually going on. News flash, Tumblr users are the main group who promote this browser. And most of us would prefer it remain a good web browser instead of adding to the already horrendous amount of damage and plagiarism that generative technology is causing. Some of us actually want to keep our information and work private instead of it being stollen to give billion dollar companies more money. Screw you, and screw ‘AI’. 

[lilliana]

FEEDBACK ON AI SERVICES EXPERIMENT IN FIREFOX NIGHTLY

Thank you for introducing this experimental feature and seeking user feedback. I'm excited about the potential of AI services integration in Firefox and wanted to share my positive experiences and thoughts.

Benefits I've Experienced

• Time-saving: The AI services have significantly reduced the time I spend on tasks like summarizing web content and simplifying complex language.
• Enhanced Learning: The ability to quiz myself on webpage content has improved my comprehension and retention of information.
• Improved Productivity: Having AI assistance readily available in the sidebar streamlines my workflow without the need to switch between different applications or tabs.

Appreciation for the Implementation Approach

I particularly appreciate how Mozilla has approached this feature:

1. Opt-in Nature: The fact that this functionality is entirely optional and needs to be manually activated shows respect for users who may have concerns about AI integration.
2. Separation from Core Functionality: By keeping AI services separate from Firefox's core features, you've maintained the browser's integrity while still offering advanced capabilities to those who want them.
3. Experimental Stage: Starting with a nightly experiment allows for valuable user feedback and iterative improvement before a wider release.

Suggestions for Consideration

While I'm already finding the feature useful, here are a few ideas that could potentially enhance the experience:

1. Core Functionality/Opt-in: Keep it as it currently is—many who raise concerns about AI often overlook that they can simply opt out.
2. Privacy Controls: Implement granular privacy settings for users who want to use the feature but have specific data concerns.
3. Integration with Firefox Sync: Enable syncing of AI-related settings and preferences across devices for a consistent experience.

Closing Thoughts

I believe this experiment represents a forward-thinking approach to browser functionality. By offering AI capabilities as an optional feature, Firefox is catering to diverse user needs while respecting individual preferences. This balance is crucial in today's digital landscape.

I encourage Mozilla to continue developing and refining this feature based on user feedback. It has the potential to significantly enhance the browsing experience for many users without compromising Firefox's core values of privacy and user control.

Thank you for your commitment to innovation and user-centric design. I look forward to seeing how this feature evolves.

[miclgael1]

You sound like a robot

[RattyTatTat]

Thats because they probably generated this whole thing with chatgpt

[lilliana]

how’d u figure that out?? lol, i used it to help make sure there’s no errors n stuff. it’s not like I just told it to spit out a random review and just posted without reading lol, I spent time going over it and putting in my own thoughts on the feature and why i think it’s cool. but it wouldn’t let me post it in impact font, all caps, with light yellow text on a white background so i had to waste time going back to fix that multiple times, but yeh

in short, well done on spotting the obvious, but that doesn’t really say anything about the content of my review

[miclgael1]

No one will read your review because it doesn't look human. Your reply looks human. I read that. 🙂

[lilliana]

That's ok the feedback was specifically for Mozilla there's not much for you to gain by reading it

edit: that one u said looks human was written by A I


now that is scary 👻

[lackey]

By its nature, AI is incapable of being deceptive (or honest) because it cannot think or reason. But because it is built to respond in a way that will please the people that use it, it can often come off as deceptive. 

But you, however... I don't understand why you are taking pleasure in adopting the persona of deception, as if you are proving something other than the worthlessness of engaging in something generated by a chatbot.

[DysProg]

And here is chat-gpt speaking in their own defense.

[Doaxan]

I don't understand what you don't like about AI? If you don't like it, don't use it, but don't interfere with the comfortable use of convenient functionality