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!

[umarmalik]

Exciting news about the Nightly experiment! The addition of AI services in the sidebar sounds like a great way to enhance productivity in Firefox. I appreciate that it's optional and can be activated through Nightly Settings. I'm looking forward to testing it out and providing feedback. It’s always great to see Firefox exploring new features—can’t wait to see how this evolves!

[lackey]

I ran several of your posts through an AI detector and they came up positive - including this one. 

I don't mean to gatekeep Firefox fans, but since you are so excited about this feature in particular, wouldn't you have known it was already available in Release Firefox?

[Nobody_of_note]

That one 100% read as AI generated to me, glad to hear the confirmation.

[jlries61]

This feature appears to be the one that is interfering with my copying and pasting.  Make it stop, or at least let me turn it off.

[neutronstar87]

Ok now I'm confused. Are we all talking about the same feature? First, for me, it isn't opt-out but rather opt-in under Firefox Labs (that is if you have selected to be part of Nightly experimental features, otherwise even this option is not visible). Secondly it doesn't interfere with the act of copying or pasting.

[SabreWulf1986]

Yup, this crap is invasive asf

[spap]

I am not on board the AI hype train. I choose Firefox in order to avoid big tech collecting users' data as much as I can. And one should not neglect the serious environmental impact of using this technology.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that a limited use of LLMs can be useful in certain cases. As such, I would say that what I would like to see you doing is:

1. Expose and set local LLMs as the default,
2. Provide users an easy way to choose / download llamafiles (with some info on the advantages of using model X over Y etc),
3. Allow users to run llamafiles directly from within the browser,
4. Explicitly warn users about the risks of using other chatbots.

Another couple of details:

1. I would prefer to have a dedicated section with actions when right clicking rather than having to to "Ask localhost" -> "Action",
2. I think "show prompts on text select" can be a bit intrusive and should be off by default,
3. It would also be interesting to have the ability to use this service in a second sidebar.

(Tested on Firefox via Labs - not on Nightly)

[spap]

Coming back to the idea of setting local LLMs as the default for anyone interested in using them and specifically integrating llamafiles within Firefox, I would like to see a complete management solution like a special settings section where:

1. llamafiles are organized by categories e.g., "text", "image" etc,
2. each model comes with a description of its capabilities,
3. I can download, remove and possibly update llamafiles (for example keeping the same base model but using a different version as they are organized currently on Hugging Face).

[majesticmini471]

Exactly! Was Firefox2.0 not based upon C++, Perl4>, and Ruby, if any other language, before 2007's ginormous corruption? Users and local servers lost so many rights and programs, right afterward. Firefox 3.6.9 was even spectacular, but has Mozilla and all illegal corporations associated not wanted to make all of Firefox go Oracle Java6< and .Net3< and Python3< and Swift3<? It would be the same as Chrome (Fome), Edge, Opera, Safari, and their insane descendants.

[gameray]

A shortcut for opening and closing would be nice

[BrazenBunnies]

ctrl+shift+L, which sucks

[argishure]

This doesn't work for me though? Are you using Glarity by any chance?

[philops]

Works great, but I would like to customise my own prompts

[akiyamka]

1. In about:config, create a new parameter with key `browser.ml.chat.prompts.x` (replace 'x' with any string, avoid numbers as they're reserved for default prompts)
2. Set type as `String`
3. Enter JSON in the following format:

{
  "label": "Propmpt name",
  "value": "Prompt value"
}

The page title and selected text will be automatically added as a prefix to the prompt, but are also available as variables: `%tabTitle%` and `%selection|12000%` where 12000 represents the character limit

[Deadcow]

Whooooa thank you a lot!

[LetMeCopy]

Allow me to select text or I will stop using anything that doesn't. 

Can someone explain to me why developers are trying to get text to not be copy capable.

[Nobody_of_note]

They don't want you to steal the work they've already stolen.

[argishure]

This is a problem with the sites in sidebar, not with the chatbots I believe. But yeah I agree, fix text selection and enter button.

[coldknees]

No, it is not a "helpful addition to Firefox", it's garbage. GenAI is theft, it has a huge negative affect on the environment (for no benefit), it's flooding the internet with crap and contributing in a big way to the ensh*tification of the internet in general.
Get rid of it, & if you ever make it a default part of the browser/ take away the option to turn it off I will not be using Firefox any longer.

[lewismac]

You probably would have protested mechanised agriculture, and continued to ride horseback to protest the automobile. How did you even write this comment? Are you not disgusted by the impact your modern, technological life has on the environment?

[coldknees]

Modern agriculture & cars have benefitted humanity such that that (imo) outweighs the harm they cause the environment (at least to a degree). GenAI is an active harm to humanity & is not some amazing advancement that will benefit us in a comparable way to agriculture & cars.

I will not be replying to this thread again. You're completely incorrect, presumptuous & outright rude. 
If you want people to have discussions with you online you should consider learning to speak to others with some decency.

[Solear]

Please add support for a selfhosted AI, like open webui/llama!

[lackey]

This was originally there, but Mozilla took it out because choices are complicated. You can still dig through the secret settings screen to enable it

[majesticmini471]

Like, Ollama? That is the only one that my team has ever trusted, with privacy and users' configurations. Yet, what do modern developers care, anymore?

[ballistic]

I'm using Mistral in the sidebar, however if I try to chat with it, after it gave me summarization, nothing happens. My prompt just disappears. This is specific to Mistral and does not happen with other providers.

Also, any way we can use local ollama models with this feature, so that the data stays on the device?

Thanks,.

[majesticmini471]

Ollama is the only one that my team and I will ever trust. Do third-parties not love to dominate their users? Mozilla?!?!

[tea23]

Thanks for contributing disproportionately to climate change by engaging with inefficient generative A"I".

[babhishek21]

Thanks for building this. Very cool. Some suggestions:

1. I would like to start chats about entire pages, not just selections.
2. Related to 1., maybe give options to inject context to chats sidebar? For example, when I have AI sidebar open next to a page, and I want to select some content on the page, and inject it into the chat text box in open sidebar.
3. Can I pass image selections to the chatbots? i.e. I select a paragraph of text and some images within it, from a blog post, and want to ask a question. 
4. Would be nice to have URL bar shortcut for a chatbots. For example:
    - new tab: Cmd +L > type `@mistral` and it should open the chatbot normally.
    - tab with a page open: Cmd + L > type `@gemini`, and it should open the chatbot with the page URL and title already injected in the text box.
    - Combined with 2, this could work really well.
5. Remember chats across tabs? Not really sure how useful, but some workflows might need to have separate chats open across separate tabs. It would be great if I switch tabs, it goes back to the chat that I had for that tab. Also, if I close and reopen the chat panel, it remembers the last chat for the tab and reopens it.

[ESaturn]

Training or using any LLM generative AI is literally a human rights violation under the universal declaration of human rights. articles 3, 4, 12, 17, 23, 27, 28, and 30.

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

[majesticmini471]

Your link is exactly why my team of technical redevelopment is against Oracle Java6<, Python3< Microsoft .Net3<, and Apple Swift3<. What do they care? They make the hardware drivers bad enough, which does not help any user, whatsoever. Amen?

[Iron56716]

I honestly like the AI Chatbot integration. I'm hoping Google AI Studio will be added officially.

It'd be even better if the sidebar could get official web page integrations like Edge or Floorp, That feature is very handy.

[Mardak]

Curious, is there a particular functionality you like about Google AI Studio? The additional settings for Gemini model choice? Model tuning? Here's using it as a custom provider, but I had to manually copy/paste the prompt:

 

[Iron56716]

There's quite a lot of things I like about Google AI Studio. Firstly, the ability to completely turn off all the safety filters, it's much easier to chat with the AI without them. Secondly, like you mentioned - the Gemini Model choice. I can change the model to any different one right in the conversation without the need to open a new chat. And of course, there's some extra perks like Custom Instructions, Model tuning, etc. Last but not least, AI Studio allows the use of Gemini 1.5 Pro without the subscription (unlike the regular Gemini websites. Although, the AI Studio version of 1.5 Pro does have a 50 turn rate limit I believe).

[everentropy]

Why are you even using Firefox if you're just giving your information to Google products anyway...

[narazamsa]

If its on device only and no data collection is going to happen. Also only complete opensource models. Then yes that would be good to have.

[Mardak]

Are there any particular open source models that you would recommend for running on device? You might be able to set it as a custom provider to chat directly from Firefox.

[IBBoard]

I think you missed @narazamsa 's point. This would only be good to have if the list was exclusively open source, on-device models. Not ChatGPT. Not Claude. No public models. No for-profit companies scraping the Internet and collecting your data. Only local models. And only ethical models.

(And even then, I don't personally see the point of adding this within the browser - there is no clear use case that doesn't end up at "and then we include the kitchen sink")

[benlk]

Firefox already provides integrations with for-profit third-party companies who are incentivized to scrape the Internet: it ships with built-in support for Google and Bing's search engines.

But agreed: this proposed AI integration seems like something which should better be packaged as an optional, installable, first-party extension, not as something built into the browser. If the extension requires access to APIs not currently available to extensions, then Firefox should make those APIs available to extensions, not privilege one specific use case or developer above all others.

[Reycko]

Would be nice to have a nice UI to add custom prompts if that's not in the works already

[aminought]

You can! Just edit "browser.ml.chat.prompt.prefix" and "browser.ml.chat.prompts.*" prefs. Also, you can add additional prompts like "Answer Questions" if you add "browser.ml.chat.prompts.3", "browser.ml.chat.prompts.4", etc.