one passage of note:
Where does all of this leave the Firefox browser. Surman argued that the organization is very judicious about rolling AI into the browser — but he also believes that AI will become part of everything Mozilla does. “We want to implement AI in a way that’s trustworthy and benefits people,” he said. Fakespot is one example of this, but the overall vision is larger. “I think that’s what you’ll see from us, over the course of the next year, is how do you use the browser as the thing that represents you and how do you build AI into the browser that’s basically on your side as you move through the internet?” He noted that an Edge-like chatbot in a sidebar could be one way of doing this, but he seems to be thinking more in terms of an assistant that helps you summarize articles and maybe notify you proactively. “I think you’ll see the browser evolve. In our case, that’s to be more protective of you and more helpful to you. I think it’s more that you use the predictive and synthesizing capabilities of those tools to make it easier and safer to move through the internet.”
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Can I get a browser that would automatically filter out AI generated content? That would be a killer feature!!
What an absolute shitshow this is going to be. If I want a digital assistant, I’ll get one. Keeping concerns separate is what has always worked. This reads like Elon wanting X to be the “everything app”. That ship has already sailed. The web is the everything app. Back when the web was new, you had AOL and Yahoo wanting to be the “gateway” to everything. How did that work out? My gateway to everything is my bookmarks folder. I don’t want AI in anything I use locally unless I explicitly enable it and ask for assistance. IMHO, this is the reason so many digital assistants have failed (especially Microsoft’s); because they tried to anticipate your needs rather than STFU and stay out of the way.
I’m old.
/rant
It’s kinda crazy to me how hate-filled Lemmy is just a half-year after I joined (when it felt like a breath of fresh air after deleting my Reddit account), especially for Mozilla. Mozilla has issues, but it’s nothing they can’t fix or come out of. They don’t deserve to die. And all the conspiracy theories I’m reading is just nonsense. I happen to be a Firefox user, but really it’s mainly because Google decided to screw with user choice (i.e. Manifest v3). Firefox is still FOSS, and it’s still giving plenty of user choice.
And all this AI talk is just bandwagoning by every corporation because if AI (as in LLM and whatnot) happens to be a baseline thing for many corporations, Mozilla not implementing it could backfire for them, so while it is bandwagoning, it also makes sense to hedge one’s bets on it.
I, for one, think this current notion of AI is too raw to take any real shape (outside of the current novelty), and these corps that are jumping on it, just like they did with “web 2.0” and “big data” and “the cloud” and “blockchain”, will eventually find that while there is some tangibility to be found, it will take many years to solidify into products that make sense for a consumer.
Yeah and AI is pretty useful for doing certain things. For example my pixel can turn on subtitles for any video or audio playing and even translate it for me on the fly. AI isnt blockchain and it isnt all chatgtp or making images with too many fingers. People are talking about improving web standards as if whatever ai stuff google,MS, and apple are cooking up wont be used in order to enhance various web features.
Likewise firefox is currently a good browser and does keep up for the most part. I’d understand the criticisms if firefox was suck in 2009, but modern day firefox is fast and works well and they will likely continue keeping up with standards while an independent team works on the open source AI stuff
I personally just don’t like people calling it AI. It’s not.
I am worried about the direction of Mozilla, it VERY FUCKING MUCH needs to invest on the browser instead of wasting time on “AI”
Whats wrong with firefox currently?
Their CEO is the biggest symptom of their problem. She demands a sky high compensation despite her poor leadership. The company has been in a spiraling decline for the past decade now. Instead of focusing on bringing a great user experience, they alienated their most staunch users with things like Pocket and allowed PWAs and Electron to eat their lunch.
Their new shopping toolbar is coming next. At least Pocket was universal. The Shopping Toolbar will only be for three websites:
Amazon USA
Walmart
Best BuyYou know, the biggest brick and mortar monopoly, the biggest online sales monopoly, and the biggest tech chain.
