It’s likely that Hackaday readers have among them a greater than average number of people who can name one special thing they did on September 23rd, 2002. On that day a new web browser was re…
I still don’t understand the hate towards the AI features in Firefox.
Could they focus on other topics? Yes, but to get new users they have to meet them where they are and since Firefox is Foss you can remove what you don’t like by joining a project focused on that.
IMHO some of the features are cool, specially, because it’s local AI with no dependency on any provider
Could someone explain in a civilised manner why you don’t like the AI features?
The customer doesn’t know what they want, and they are always wrong.
Do you want enshittification? Because that’s what the authors of all the enshittification have said in the last decade
Providing a solid product and trying new things (specially things that can be toggled off in the settings, although it could be easier) is not incompatible and might uncover new useful use cases. I don’t love all the recent developments but all the hate is overblown
The effort to put the AI into Firefox harmed the project and unrelated services. My opinion is it was not worth the cost
To me, AI in Firefox is a symbol for why and how Mozilla lost its momentum. I could have used other bone headed and incompetent decisions, but the switch to the AI had such a large burden that it’s literally the poster child for inept management.
I don’t think the backlash is coming from the features. It’s coming from the fact that we’re constantly being prompted to please try the “AI” features. Companies installing “AI <something>” on your devices without you asking. Re-installing them when you try to delete them. They don’t even tell show you why it’s better they just slap “AI” on it.
Anything that this tech does and is actually good, speaks for itself, so it just goes unnoticed. People end up associating it with the worst and now Firefox is also saying: Hey we have “AI” too. Of course people are gonna be mad, especially when they are already fed up with being prompted to try it constantly.
I don’t think that people can… And most don’t even know, that they already use algorithms like the one in FF, on a daily basis, in Adobe-programs, in Spotify, in Youtube, on FB, and so forth… And FF is keeping peoples privacy, and the “AI” local… And the others I mentioned don’t do that. They profile and sell, every facking one of them…
I have actually been able to “sell” Firefox to some people who wasn’t ready to switch before, because they like AI… And they also like privacy…
But there will always be some, that will insist on something being bad - they need to keep their crusade going.
I think some of the answer is expressed in the article:
To service and retain this loyal userbase then, you might imagine that Mozilla would address their needs and concerns with what made Phoenix a great first version back in 2002. A lightweight and versatile standards-compliant and open-source web browser with acceptable privacy standards, and without any other non-browser features attached to it. Just a browser, only a browser, and above all, a fast browser.
Instead, Mozilla appear to be following a course calculated to alarm rather than retain these users. Making themselves an AI-focused organisation, neglecting their once-unbeatable developer network, and trying to sneak data gathering into their products.
I personally found it a somewhat interesting use case, although rarely needed it and they have also implemented other “AI” stuff like the website translation tool which allowed me to avoid Google translate (and is fully local)
I didn’t see anything running locally, just hooks to existing online chatbots. I’m not sure who is asking for that, but it feels like it isn’t the users
I still don’t understand the hate towards the AI features in Firefox.
Could they focus on other topics? Yes, but to get new users they have to meet them where they are and since Firefox is Foss you can remove what you don’t like by joining a project focused on that.
IMHO some of the features are cool, specially, because it’s local AI with no dependency on any provider
Could someone explain in a civilised manner why you don’t like the AI features?
Do you want enshittification? Because that’s how you get enshittification.
Provide a solid product, screw the customer. The customer doesn’t know what they want, and they are always wrong.
Do you want enshittification? Because that’s what the authors of all the enshittification have said in the last decade
Providing a solid product and trying new things (specially things that can be toggled off in the settings, although it could be easier) is not incompatible and might uncover new useful use cases. I don’t love all the recent developments but all the hate is overblown
Look, I was just being cynical and snarky. For real, man.
I don’t know what to do about it.
What is your suggestion?
I mean, are you happy with where things are headed?
The effort to put the AI into Firefox harmed the project and unrelated services. My opinion is it was not worth the cost
To me, AI in Firefox is a symbol for why and how Mozilla lost its momentum. I could have used other bone headed and incompetent decisions, but the switch to the AI had such a large burden that it’s literally the poster child for inept management.
I don’t think the backlash is coming from the features. It’s coming from the fact that we’re constantly being prompted to please try the “AI” features. Companies installing “AI <something>” on your devices without you asking. Re-installing them when you try to delete them. They don’t even
tellshow you why it’s better they just slap “AI” on it.Anything that this tech does and is actually good, speaks for itself, so it just goes unnoticed. People end up associating it with the worst and now Firefox is also saying: Hey we have “AI” too. Of course people are gonna be mad, especially when they are already fed up with being prompted to try it constantly.
So it’s a PR problem?
I hate how everything depends on marketing (manipulation)
Thank you for your input
I don’t think that people can… And most don’t even know, that they already use algorithms like the one in FF, on a daily basis, in Adobe-programs, in Spotify, in Youtube, on FB, and so forth… And FF is keeping peoples privacy, and the “AI” local… And the others I mentioned don’t do that. They profile and sell, every facking one of them…
I have actually been able to “sell” Firefox to some people who wasn’t ready to switch before, because they like AI… And they also like privacy…
But there will always be some, that will insist on something being bad - they need to keep their crusade going.
I think some of the answer is expressed in the article:
Gathering what data?
because most of the ai features they’re touting are around chatbots which are just websites, which makes it pointless to build into the browser.
I personally found it a somewhat interesting use case, although rarely needed it and they have also implemented other “AI” stuff like the website translation tool which allowed me to avoid Google translate (and is fully local)
I didn’t see anything running locally, just hooks to existing online chatbots. I’m not sure who is asking for that, but it feels like it isn’t the users
Check the website translation tool great use of local “AI”