After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is making some major changes to its product
For what it’s worth… I think there are useful AI tools. For example the offline translation feature that doesn’t send your content to google is something they recently introduced. I’d also like to see someone compete with a decent and open text-to-speech solution that gets wide adoption… And the idea of flagging fake reviews doesn’t sound too bad (I haven’t tried it.) I mean people are complaining about SEO making google unusable and fake news only ever getting more. I can see some benefit there - if done right.
But we definitely don’t need a Clippy 2.0 or another smart assistant. And I don’t think everything has to be embedded in a browser and make it yet more complicated and bigger, or implemented in the operating system. An add-on will probably do.
(Edit: And I sometimes don’t understand Mozilla. Why not focus on their core product and make that exceptionally great? If they’re already struggling… What’s with all these side-projects and dabbling in AI anyways?)
I am very skeptical when it comes to machine learning and all the hype surrounding it, but it’s not all bad. For example an improved firefox translate would be a nice feature to have. There might also be some usecases for accessibility or adblocking.
In general, I agree, but it seems Mozilla is trying to do the right thing by AI. Offline translation is neat. And the Review Checker they just introduced uses AI to spot fake Amazon reviews. I think that’s pretty cool.
Mozilla seized an opportunity to bring trustworthy AI into Firefox, largely driven by the Fakespot acquisition and the product integration work that followed. Additionally, finding great content is still a critical use case for the internet. Therefore, as part of the changes today, we will be bringing together Pocket, Content, and the AI/ML teams supporting content with the Firefox Organization.
Seems like they’re planning to incorporate AI into the browser.
16 jan 2024 10:00:00 CET: The release for Mac with an ARM CPU (a.k.a. Apple Silicon) is giving some troubles because I’m building it on an Intel macbook pro leftover from a previous job and everytime I build a new release, in order to test it, I need to drive to mediamarkt or an apple store. It would be great having someone testing these build(s) (they are in the Download page). So if you have an ARM M1/2/3/n Mac and some time to spare, try the builds in the Download page and let me know if/or which one works. Thanks!
I shall answer this call. Thanks!
How’s it compare to “hardened Firefox”? Just something I’ve seen referenced.
I don’t need or want any of that AI crap in my browser. Hopefully there will be a compiler flag to disable it.
For what it’s worth… I think there are useful AI tools. For example the offline translation feature that doesn’t send your content to google is something they recently introduced. I’d also like to see someone compete with a decent and open text-to-speech solution that gets wide adoption… And the idea of flagging fake reviews doesn’t sound too bad (I haven’t tried it.) I mean people are complaining about SEO making google unusable and fake news only ever getting more. I can see some benefit there - if done right.
But we definitely don’t need a Clippy 2.0 or another smart assistant. And I don’t think everything has to be embedded in a browser and make it yet more complicated and bigger, or implemented in the operating system. An add-on will probably do.
(Edit: And I sometimes don’t understand Mozilla. Why not focus on their core product and make that exceptionally great? If they’re already struggling… What’s with all these side-projects and dabbling in AI anyways?)
I am very skeptical when it comes to machine learning and all the hype surrounding it, but it’s not all bad. For example an improved firefox translate would be a nice feature to have. There might also be some usecases for accessibility or adblocking.
In general, I agree, but it seems Mozilla is trying to do the right thing by AI. Offline translation is neat. And the Review Checker they just introduced uses AI to spot fake Amazon reviews. I think that’s pretty cool.
The article says nothing about incorporating AI into the browser.
Firefox is diversifying it’s offerings, and focusing on two discrete projects.
From the article:
Seems like they’re planning to incorporate AI into the browser.
I’m sure there’ll be some little forked version of Firefox without the features you can’t abide simply turning off in the settings.
@FaceDeer @koncertejo @cmnybo There’s been a fork for years minus any tracking etc, called #IceCat. I don’t see anything to suggest they’re looking at #AI any time soon.
https://icecatbrowser.org/about.html
@FaceDeer @koncertejo @cmnybo … not to be confused with #IceCatNV the Product Content company, who are definitely looking into #AI
https://icecat.com/generative-ai-for-product-content/
I shall answer this call. Thanks!
How’s it compare to “hardened Firefox”? Just something I’ve seen referenced.