I don’t need or want any of that AI crap in my browser. Hopefully there will be a compiler flag to disable it.
For what it’s worth… I think there are useful AI tools. For example the offline translation feature that doesn’t send your content to google is something they recently introduced. I’d also like to see someone compete with a decent and open text-to-speech solution that gets wide adoption… And the idea of flagging fake reviews doesn’t sound too bad (I haven’t tried it.) I mean people are complaining about SEO making google unusable and fake news only ever getting more. I can see some benefit there - if done right.
But we definitely don’t need a Clippy 2.0 or another smart assistant. And I don’t think everything has to be embedded in a browser and make it yet more complicated and bigger, or implemented in the operating system. An add-on will probably do.
(Edit: And I sometimes don’t understand Mozilla. Why not focus on their core product and make that exceptionally great? If they’re already struggling… What’s with all these side-projects and dabbling in AI anyways?)
One feature that could be neat is having a locally-generated summary of a page, as well as suggested tags when bookmarking.
Uh yeah, I’m not sure. I’ve tried summarizing with AI tools. And there is the bot here on Lemmy that summarizes stuff… I never liked any of that. It’s really a mixed bag, from pretty okay summaries to entirely missing the point of the original article to bordering on false information. I think we’re far from there yet. However, it’s a common use-case for AI. Maybe in 1-2 years I can stop being afraid of misinformation being fed to me. Currently, I think the incorrectness of the information still outweighs any potential benefit. The more complicated it gets, thus making you in need of a summary in the first place, the more biased and skewed the results get. So I don’t see that happen in the very near future. But we definitely should keep up doing the research and pushing that.
Tagging and organizing is something I’d like an AI for.
I am very skeptical when it comes to machine learning and all the hype surrounding it, but it’s not all bad. For example an improved firefox translate would be a nice feature to have. There might also be some usecases for accessibility or adblocking.
The article says nothing about incorporating AI into the browser.
Firefox is diversifying it’s offerings, and focusing on two discrete projects.
From the article:
Mozilla seized an opportunity to bring trustworthy AI into Firefox, largely driven by the Fakespot acquisition and the product integration work that followed. Additionally, finding great content is still a critical use case for the internet. Therefore, as part of the changes today, we will be bringing together Pocket, Content, and the AI/ML teams supporting content with the Firefox Organization.
Seems like they’re planning to incorporate AI into the browser.
I’m sure there’ll be some little forked version of Firefox without the features you can’t abide simply turning off in the settings.
@FaceDeer @koncertejo @cmnybo There’s been a fork for years minus any tracking etc, called #IceCat. I don’t see anything to suggest they’re looking at #AI any time soon.
https://icecatbrowser.org/about.html
@FaceDeer @koncertejo @cmnybo … not to be confused with #IceCatNV the Product Content company, who are definitely looking into #AI
https://icecat.com/generative-ai-for-product-content/
16 jan 2024 10:00:00 CET: The release for Mac with an ARM CPU (a.k.a. Apple Silicon) is giving some troubles because I’m building it on an Intel macbook pro leftover from a previous job and everytime I build a new release, in order to test it, I need to drive to mediamarkt or an apple store. It would be great having someone testing these build(s) (they are in the Download page). So if you have an ARM M1/2/3/n Mac and some time to spare, try the builds in the Download page and let me know if/or which one works. Thanks!
I shall answer this call. Thanks!
How’s it compare to “hardened Firefox”? Just something I’ve seen referenced.
Can they just focus on the browser? I really don’t need the AI stuff.
The issue is that Firefox alone doesn’t pay the bills and I’d imagine they really want to get away from being dependent on the Google deal they have.
We don’t need AI stuff but if they can get some good funding from it, they can put more into the browser
Arguably the issue here is that Firefox pays too many of the bills, directly from its main competitor
Yeah, fair I could have worded that better. Finding better ways of funding is the goal
That’s not what they’re doing. They’re going to focus on two separate products: Firefox and AI.
Focusing on FF: Yay!
Adding AI to FF: NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!
I mean, a local-only AI would be really cool to have, especially if they need to be competitive against Google and Microsoft with Edge who are investing significant ressources in AI and are trying various ways to integrate it into their products
Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI drops multiple products and layoff 60 so that its current budget can accomodate the stratospheric compensation of its new CEO.
fuuk this AI bubble. the browser is one place where ai is not needed
Actually I think AI in browser could potentially become a much more effective content blocker than ad blockers like ublock in the future.
I recall there being at least one content blocker that worked by heuristics instead of rulesets. Cannot remember the name, but it was clearly not as effective as conventional ones, because not all ads look the same and usually people want to block the invisible trackers as well.
One feature that is currently using a trained model for local processing is Firefox Translations. There are good use for AI that can enhance privacy, but yeah the trend of slapping AI on everything because it is trendy to do so must end.
