Comment on It just keeps getting worse - Firefox to "evolve into a modern AI browser"
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 2 days ago
WE. DON’T. WANT. THIS.
Mozilla, for the love of god, stop cramming AI into the browser when the vast majority of your users just want a privacy-respecting browser that works.
I’ve said it before, and I’ve said it again: I will not donate any more money to the Mozilla foundation until they stop cramming AI into everything, and you should too.
Read what the new CEO says, and it doesn’t seem as bad. In the interview, he states that they’ll be adding AI with options, and since they’re not beholden to any one company, the user can choose what is best for them.
My guess: A sidebar chat you can disable, which allows you to pick your provider, and an about:config that let’s you customize the URL for local AI.
Would I rather time be devoted elsewhere? Yes. Would this be horrible? Nah.
That being said, I could be totally wrong.
You should actually read their statements, rather than a headline from an article with a clear agenda. They are making these features optional and unobtrusive.
Their statement is “we’re incorporating AI into your browser”. What “agenda” do you think this author has? Other than informing users?
The problem is, it’s not unobtrusive.
When I right click and I instantly get an option silently added to the list that sends data to an AI model hosted somewhere, which I’ve accidentally clicked due to muscle memory, it’s not good just because there’s also the option there to disable it. When I start up my browser after an update and I am instantly given an open sidebar asking me to pick an AI model to use, that’s obtrusive and annoying to have to close and disable.
Mozilla has indicated they do not want to make these features opt-in, but opt-out. The majority of Mozilla users do not want these features by default, so the logical option is to make them solely opt-in. But Mozilla isn’t doing that. Mozilla is enabling features by default, without consent, then only taking them away when you tell them to stop.
The approach Mozilla is taking is like if you told a guy you weren’t interested in dating him, but instead of taking that as a "no." he took it as a "try again with a different pickup line in 2 weeks" and never, ever stopped no matter what you tried. It doesn’t matter that you can tell him to go away now if he’ll just keep coming back.
Mozilla does not understand consent, and they are violating the consent of their users every time they push an update including AI features that are opted-in by default.
i don’t want it either, but AFAIK they’re local models so the data didn’t go anywhere
They don’t use local models yet, at least not for their existing AI chatbot sidebar feature.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot
When you use a chatbot, you are agreeing to that provider’s privacy policies and terms of use. Each chatbot provider has their own terms of use and privacy policies. View the privacy policies and terms for providers in Firefox.
Some chatbots are more privacy-respecting than others.
That has not at all been our lived experience so far.
Every week it seems like there is a new AI feature snuck in that we have to tell each other about and disable.
If it’s installed and I have to turn it off, then it’s intrusive. Don’t bullshit me
Is “the vast majority of your users” your display name or something? I have those turned off in my client settings
goatinspace@feddit.org 2 days ago
They might be getting money from google that tells them what to do.
kuhli@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Nah, Google funds them so they can point at them and say they aren’t a monopoly, directing what they do would ruin that.
Mozilla’s perfectly capable of making dumb decisions on their own, they do that plenty
Eldritch@piefed.world 2 days ago
¿Why not both?
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 2 days ago
Because google only pays Mozilla because of:
- Maintaining search dominance
- Preventing anti-monopoly scrutiny
They don’t want Mozilla to compete in any AI space, because there’s already a ton of competition in the AI space given how much money gets thrown around, so they don’t benefit from anti-monopoly efforts, and there’s so many models that they don’t benefit from search dominance in the AI space. They’d much rather have Mozilla stay a non-AI browser while they get to implement AI features and show shareholders that they’re “the most advanced” of them all, or that “nobody else is doing it like we do”.
tomiant@piefed.social 1 day ago
I wish you weren’t right. I remember old firefox.
I will never forgive.
frongt@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
They are, but that’s only for the search engine thing. Unless Google has a seat on the board.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s for the default search, but it also has the side benefit of ensuring a secondary browser with decent market share that’s not Chromium-based they can point to claiming they’re not a monopoly.
goatinspace@feddit.org 1 day ago
Google donates to KDE also