AI Expansion Plan

[sritches]

Chiming in on the discussion around Mozilla's announcement of intent to broaden AI usage within Firefox:

It does not matter if users are given the option to disable the features; their inclusion is immoral in and of itself. AI's destructive effects on the environment, the economy, and the human brain are already well-documented, and it's saddening to see that Mozilla has evidently decided that these concerns are subordinate to their desire to chase a higher market share (a share which, across all datasets collected here, never cracks 7%). 

In a recent thread, Building AI the Firefox way: Shaping what’s next together,  a representative from Mozilla states that:

"Nonetheless, standing still while technology moves forward doesn’t benefit the web or the people who use it."

I understand the sentiment they're expressing here but would submit that in this case, it's not a question of "standing still", but instead "taking a stand". Whether foregoing AI features "benefit[s] the web or the people who use it" is a question worth asking, but escalating usage of a technology that pollutes communities, damages the job market, raises the price of consumer goods, plagiarizes art, damages cognitive ability, and preys on vulnerable people--sometimes at the cost of their lives--most certainly does not. These anti-human impacts are unavoidable, but they also aren't even the sole concern with the tech. AI is well-known to "hallucinate", providing users with unreliable information, which makes the aforementioned costs even more unconscionable. It's a technology that churns up the planet, society, and its users, and spits out a pile of slop.

So, Mozilla, I plead: keep AI out of Firefox. Don't just reverse course on expansion, but also strip out the existing AI "features". If the ethical argument isn't persuasive, I'll offer a market-based reality check: trying to stay competitive in an arms race with Google has clearly not borne results over the last 20 years. This is a chance to set yourselves apart. Do the right thing, and there's an opportunity to become the only game in town for users who are opposed to AI. Continue on this course, and you will lose at least one user... though I strongly doubt I'll be the only one. 

[mrblorps]

Very well written. +1 from me.

I like how simple Firefox is. I like how I can use addons and customize settings.

I do not want AI tools bundled with a privacy-focused browser. AI in of itself is at this point the antithesis of privacy. Listen to your userbase. You will not make money off of AI. All you are going to do is drive users away.

AI/Machine Learning as of right now is great for math but little for anything else. It hallucinates and does not understand context or emotions or nuance. It is not a "quick fix." It is still years away from being able to do what people want it to be able to do.

I am pleading to you, Firefox. Please read Reuter's recent article for a good overview of some of the issues occurring at other companies. AI promised a revolution. Companies are still waiting. 

- Signed a Data Analytics major

[RBlue118]

Here here!!

[samyotix]

It's "Hear, hear" AFAIK 🙂 sorry for my spelling fetish

[souppatrol]

A+, no notes. **bleep** AI

[kenealysour]

Fully agree. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, I will switch to the most bland boring browser I have to in order to avoid AI. Get outta here

[inglorioustimes]

Thank you for saying this! 

I like Firefox. I don't want to switch browsers if I can avoid it. But the business decisions I can see on the horizon look pretty bad. It looks like you're going to alienate your core users and ruin the user experience in favour of profit and trend-chasing. So, unfortunately, I'm having to think about when it's time to get off the sinking ship.

[subtlety]

I think the new CEO needs to step down, since he doesn't seem to understand the absolutely moronic ideas he's brought to the table. Jumping on a bandwagon with your lead product is never a good idea. If he wants to go down the road of an AI browser, let him fork the browser and build the AI bs of his dreams, or else, similarly to how Debian did years ago, we'll fork the browser and leave Mozilla in the dust

[jellyghost]

Fully agree, this is a huge breach of trust and throws away a lot of good faith from the user base. Even just on a technical level, AI is extremely unreliable, it can't even hit the lowest bar of providing accurate information consistently, not to mention the active damage it's doing. I'm not sticking with Firefox after this.

[DCFan75]

Fully agree. Thanks.

[urfy]

I've been on Firefox since about the time it came out; so when they said they were going to incorporate AI, I was going to jump ship; but now I see on reddit that there will be a kill switch for it. So I'm hoping for the best.

[samyotix]

So uh, which browser still caters to users who do not want any AI spam?

[Tazer_Silvascar]

I don't think there is one that fully commits to shutting it out completely, unfortunately.

[jthibeault]

The Waterfox fork is very privacy and sandbox focused. It does not have any of the AI foistware.

[Tazer_Silvascar]

My only problem with Waterfox, and this might be because it's not on the same drive as the OS, but I've found it rather sluggish, it doesn't load webpages nearly as fast. This might be on me and a misunderstanding of the hardware, but really, with my alt drive being an SSD and the home drive being an HDD (manufacturer's choice, not mine), I feel there shouldn't be such a big impact.

[Frede957]

I can only agree !

I have sadly decided to forgo the use of Firefox for the time being, until the AI features are removed and a stand is taken.

I have decided to use other nok profit privacy browsers that has taken a stand on the AI floor.

[bty23]

I disagree with this. Me personally I like Ai like Gemini because of the knowledge it has particularly surrounding upgrading and changing software. However, I think firefox having ai in the sidebar is useless. Making keyboard shortcut won't fix this problem either. I recommend keeping the current sidebar but making it so that the action that it takes can be binded to something else. Instead of clicking opening in the sidebar, it opens a new tab.

[jennbaker]

I personally do not like AI, but I understand that it's not going away. I am thankful that Firefox is giving users an option to opt out of its use.