TL;DR: Mozilla recently released AI controls for Firefox: a single control panel that lets people disable AI features in the browser or pick and choose which to leave on. On the surface, this sounds like a win for user choice in an era of AI-everything.
If we dig deeper, you can start to see that the kill switch isn’t the whole story. This feature acts like an accountability sink. By giving you an off-switch, Mozilla’s leadership shifts the ethical burden of AI onto the user - turning their design choices into your responsibility.
Any LLM features should’ve been opt-in by default if Mozilla actually gave a shit, asking the user if they wanted that useless bullshit before installing. As this technology isn’t polished and can introduce vulnerabilities due to it’s inherently insecure nature. A kill switch is useful if a user decided that LLMs weren’t it and wanted to disable everything wholesale at the click of a button; only after they originally consented to LLM features being enabled.
Mozilla are only adding this feature because users made their LLM by default installation look pretty grim, I was one of those many dissenting voices about that. They wanted to jump on the LLM hype and cash in on some techbro attention, not considering that some of their user base would outright reject the idea.
Bro, just turn it off if you don’t want it.
Or use Tor Browser or Mullvad Browser if you don’t wanna deal with it.
LLM features should be opt-in by default, full stop. Just turning it off without being given a choice to refuse is very scummy behavior on the part of Mozilla. What if they wanted to use the default Firefox? Shouldn’t a user be allowed to opt-in and have LLM features off by default on every fresh install?
It’s nice having options that respect your freedom of choice and don’t force their deluded ideas upon you…I feel that mainline Firefox, made by Mozilla should do that as well! By not holding Mozilla to higher standards, you get another Microsoft Edge or Chrome situation all over again, this time in open source spaces.
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Like I said, then use a fork.
Tor and Mullvad made some excellent browsers.
Still not the point, if Mozilla wanted to implement LLM features, they needed to do it right! Opt-in is the ethical and user respecting way to handle it. We can all use Forks, but if you let a corporation get away with insane defaults…It will get worse.
Feel free to make the pull request, dawg
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How about we remove it from the browser, and if you want it you can install it as an addon.
Submit that pull request, my dude
Do you have the authority to authorize its approval, or are you just trying to shut people up with a thought-terminating cliché
You don’t need authority if its your own code, technically. Just commit and build.
If you’re wanting it as the default for everyone who uses that browser, Lemmy is not the place to request it. Hit up Mozilla, ask them to change it, or change it yourself and ask them to review your pull request. They authorize and approve from outside contributors quite often, so don’t sell yourself short.
But also, yes, i love the cliche because people just moan on lemmy about things instead of actively addressing the issue with the appropriate people on the appropriate mediums.
Airing your grievances out here is fun though. I get it. but asking the people upset about it to do some work is also fun.
Do you really believe Mozilla would accept a pull request to remove AI from their codebase?
No, but somebody has to try.
K cool thx
Why do you want people to stop discussing this? Are you running community management for Mozilla? If not, why is discussing it not “addressing the issue”? People are engaging in discourse.
Not once did I say I want people to stop discussing this.
What is the purpose of this message?
But also, yes, i love the cliche because people just moan on lemmy about things instead of actively addressing the issue with the appropriate people on the appropriate mediums.
Airing your grievances out here is fun though. I get it. but asking the people upset about it to do some work is also fun.
Awfully ironic to say this, now that “code is free”. What work are we talking about?
bro use another thing. don’t complain or suggest something should be different! Just abandon toot sweet. Seriously im in process of moving to either waterfox or librefox but the browser is practically an abstracted next level of the os so moving over is just a bit faster than moving my os. At least for my main browser.
Better yet, just make a pull request. Its open source. Can build your own Firefox.
xactly. or why even fork. just start building a new browser writing straight assembly or better yet bro code it with ai.
The source code is there. Why reinvent the wheel. Its like 2 or 3 commands to build it.
oh building it straight up removes the ai? do builds ever fail? what are the three commands. I won’t need specific libraries or other requirments for my os yeah?
Ezpz
- Download source
- Delete ai commits
- Install deps per Firefox and OS docs
- Build per Firefox and OS docs
Now you won’t ever have to worry about it.
Better yet, install Tor Browser or Mullvad browser and save yourself from typing 3 command lines.
im already moving to either waterfox or librefox. comes down to if my addons have any issue with either. hoping waterfox as I already sorta have waterfox for a specific setup I don’t want to change.
Librewolf keeps crashing my machine whenever I alt tab out of a game to it.
Might just be a Firefox bug, since it’s a very light fork. Try Firefox and see if it does the same thing.
I switched back to Firefox after the third time it happened. Not a Firefox issue
Well, you could import the same policies into Firefox that LibreWolf uses, or it might be some workaround in your graphics driver that acts on the filename of the Firefox executable.
Obviously you don’t need to test, but just throwing out ideas if you would want to.
I find it funny. How Firefox users are saying, “Just turn it off, bro.” in the comments now. After having Brave users shit for saying the same thing for years. Never change browser war BS…never change.
Uh, I’m not trying to be all Hail Corporate or anything, but they didn’t have to include the disable AI toggle. It sounds like if you turn it off, you never have to think about AI in Firefox…
Users needed to be able to choose if they wanted those LLM features from the very beginning, opt-in is the only sane way Mozilla could’ve handled this push towards LLM integration in Firefox. You are being “All Hail Corporate” by refusing to hold Mozilla accountable for their user hostile behavior. In this case, insane defaults and not respecting user choice is the bad behavior on the part of Mozilla. The only respectful choice would’ve been allowing the user to reject LLM features when first starting Firefox. A kill switch cannot be considered enough in this case and never should be!
Opt-in is not just the only respectful choice, it’s also the only logical or ethical one. Mozilla instead made the choice that makes the most financial sense, like every other company or nonprofit on the planet.
If you have other ideas to fund the project, see if Mozilla will listen to you. We don’t have to like it, but at this time Firefox is still the least-bad browser. But people who won’t accept anything good they do are actually unhinged…
- Keep taking money from Google
- Stop giving it to random AI companies with no strings attached
- Don’t get into a discrimination lawsuit by firing a man with a medical condition, who was leading the only profitable department
- Start taking donations for Firefox development
