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.