@vex Mozilla has been filling up a war chest for the past years.

They can survive some years without Google.

And you say AI when you want to be understood by non-devs.

That’s not to say that you’re wrong. Just that I don’t consider your conclusion the only plausible one.
@firefoxwebdevs @dveditz

@ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs @dveditz of course it's not the only plausible outcome. "Claws retracted". But can legitimate use cases ever claw back the scale of investment in AI & turn a profit? No.

Will they stop taking Google's money? Unlikely.

Will they continue to force in the features Google says they must to continue being funded? Likely.

Will the company that dropped "Don't be evil" from their values not do evil? Unlikely.

@firefoxwebdevs This is so sad to watch.

Y'all need to pause and reflect on *why* the vast majority of your loyal user base wants nothing to do with your AI slop "features."

It's bad business. If you have to develop a kill switch for a whole class of feature because it's so toxic, maybe the need for a kill switch isn't the actual issue. Yeah?

Come on, we all know you're not this oblivious. Stop lying to yourselves and us.

@firefoxwebdevs You have lost all sense and sensibility. You have lost the plot. You are bleeding users and your idea to get them back is to introduce features NOBODY wants. You used to be a good alternative to corporate browsers, but you have become the evil you were fighting against. Good riddance.

@ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs @dveditz please don't neglect to take into account the context of these companies existing under fascism, since that context is essential. Control over information to the degree that browser integrations of AI can manage isn't something that fascism won't take advantage of. & We can already see the effects this has in media to know where this is headed.

@firefoxwebdevs pretty nice, wish more software allowed this

@vex which is why if Mozilla actually manages to get auditable on-device LLMs to provide the core features people already got dependent on, this can actually be important.

Will they do that? I don’t know.

But I know that if Mozilla as project and company bows to fascism, there are people in the EU with integrity who can carry on the baton.

Not as quickly without Google money, but some of that is happening already.

@firefoxwebdevs @dveditz

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social I think it would be better if the toggle was somewhere in the main UI or hamburger menu, instead of buried in the settings tab.

I think it would also make sense to have an on-boarding prompt to enable/disable AI when people open the browser the first time or update to the version this is added.

As other people are pointing out, the default if noone has explicitly turned it on should be off.

@ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs @dveditz compare the number of users in mastodon vs twitter & you'll see how effective hoping people will use a safer alternative is. Mark my words, we're witnessing the conquering of the Internet itself. Or at least the attempt to do so.

But it appears this is where we'll agree to disagree.

@firefoxwebdevs This will just make firefox worse. aiSlop is already crashing and on the way out. Do the right thing here, get rid of it.

@firefoxwebdevs
AT LAST !

@firefoxwebdevs @viralobscurity Your translation red herring is insulting, and the laziest possible approach to addressing this massive misstep. Do better.

@firefoxwebdevs nice

I think if it runs locally, AI features are quite useful. E.g. I use translations daily. Tab grouping and image alt texts would also be great. Unfortunately they are probably not eligible to run locally.

@wojtek Interesting that you have a Vivaldi.net account, a browser that famously doesn’t include any AI features. Your question is a bit strange in this context, or maybe it’s just a bad attempt at being a contrarian.

@firefoxwebdevs @tay @madduci that feels more like "hide" than "block" to me

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs .. thank you Jake for at least trying to do SOMETHING constructive here despite Moz leadership’s stance on AI. I can live with a BLOCK AI button if BLOCKED is default (although I’d personally prefer your limited resources were spent elsewhere).

Given you (accurately) mentioned Mastodon is skewed against AI, I’m curious what non-Mastodon data does Moz have on actual interest for AI in Mozilla? (Beyond “everyone is doing it”.)

@firefoxwebdevs “Block AI Enhancements” should be checked by default, ya ding dongs.

@Mastokarl @firefoxwebdevs You might find yourself in a creative void.

@plwt @firefoxwebdevs
Only if your SW is broken and simply getting a window, then drawing its own controls. Perhaps years ago Firefox was changed to use its own renderer and CSS instead of system API calls for all controls etc.
I can even do a custom theme on Mint+ Mate, Win98, XP, Win7 and well written programs look native.

How can you even know the Look & Feel? The entire concept of Firefox GUI must now broken.

That would explain the garbage scrollbars.

@plwt @firefoxwebdevs
Short answer, if you think that you are completely wrong about how a program should do a gui. You are writing about something with a custom skin, not a well behaved program. Even a QT based program can follow an arbitrary OS look and feel. Java can. So instead of creating and styling a funky scrollbar you FW tells OS: Scrollbar here this orientation & length.

Winamp was 1st I encountered ignoring OS.