AI Controls (formerly 'kill switch') are landing in today's Firefox Nightly, and will land with Firefox 148 later this month.

[davey_cakes@mastodon.ie]

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs

I'd class Fedi as having a high representation of people who care about software, ethics and the intersection of the two. I would call that useful.

Also I see myself in the comment about it being populated by the kind of people who have been recommending Firefox since before Chrome existed, but are now feeling alienated by Mozilla's decisions.

Am I really going to go into settings every time a new AI flag pops up, or am I going to run Zen?

[duke_of_germany@mastodon.gamedev.place]

Go. Outside. Touch. Grass. ️

And blink twice if you need help.

You do not have to write these little "comebacks". Everybody and their dog can see right through them, and they accomplish nothing, other than wasting your personal lifetime.

@jaffathecake @firefoxwebdevs @davidgerard

[davey_cakes@mastodon.ie]

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs

And I'm not angry at you personally, if anything I'm angry on behalf of all the people just trying to make a good browser. At the people who insist on AI in the face of no evidence that current users want it, or that it will realistically win away Chrome users or similar.

[jaffathecake@mastodon.social]

@davey_cakes @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs

> I'd class Fedi as having a high representation of people who care about software, ethics and the intersection of the two. I would call that useful.

100%. That's why I did the poll here, and used it to push for a change. But I also recognise that is not 100% representative of all users.

> Am I really going to go into settings every time a new AI flag pops up

No, if you use the main block, it applies to new AI features too.

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs fabulous attempt at DARVO in corporate comms Jake, well done

[jaffathecake@mastodon.social]

@davey_cakes @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs in the UI's own words:

[per_sonne@ciberlandia.pt]

@duke_of_germany @jonny @jaffathecake @firefoxwebdevs @davidgerard

Because they are Mckinsey Heads, who ate all the Neoliberal McKinsey Slop. Time to kick them out of the board.

[kiloku@burnthis.town]

@firefoxwebdevs How long until an update re-enables all of these settings like you've been doing on the about:config AI related settings?

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@Kiloku about:config is a place for flags and experiments, whereas these are dedicated user settings.

I know that doesn't prove anything, but I don't think proof can be provided in a single reply. The proof will be in respecting this setting over time.

[jaffathecake@mastodon.social]

@Kiloku @duke_of_germany yes, because the audience bias is towards folks more likely to block AI, so it's a great place to ask questions about what they consider to be AI, and how they'd like to use such a feature.

[barubary@infosec.exchange]

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs @davidgerard @jaffathecake This is disgusting. You've spent multiple discussion threads ignoring central issue(s) and going off on tangents, focusing on irrelevant details, and just generally avoiding even mentioning the things people are actually concerned about. And now you're trying to turn this around by claiming Duke is avoiding an issue? And putting words in his mouth by claiming he is putting words in your mouth when no such thing happened? All that just to avoid talking about the core issues in this thread?

Are you a professional gaslighter or something?

Before this AI nonsense, I used to recommend (or straight up install) Firefox to friends, acquaintances and family, but I don't think I ever will again. I feel grossed out.

[alextecplayz@techhub.social]

@firefoxwebdevs TY, this is a nice feature 🩷

I have nothing else to (constructively) add, more that I agree with the points that it should be opt-in and perhaps some of the alarmist language / design be toned down. Still a step in the right direction, so that's great to see.

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs @jaffathecake

I was at the dentist yesterday and expressed a mildly anti LLM view to the dental assistant (something like if it's wrong some of the time you need to verify everything and at that point is it still helpful)

Her response to that made it clear that she's hated it but hasn't had the words to express it. People outside of this network don't like AI, they're just people who technology happens to rather than people who impose their will on their tech.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@alextecplayz fwiw, the individual features are, to some extent, opt in. As in, AI models are not downloaded and used until you engage with the feature, e.g. via the "Suggest more of my tabs" button.

[giacomo@snac.tesio.it]

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social

#AI enhancements being enabled by default is a #DarkPattern abuse from #Firefox.

Please make these #privacy violating tools opt-in, as #European law requires.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@giacomo the features don't do anything until you interact with them (like in this screenshot).

At this point, a local model is downloaded, and the processing is done entirely on device, preserving privacy.

Same goes for translation. It happens on device whereas most other browsers send the text off-device.

[giacomo@snac.tesio.it]

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social

Please invert the default: let people who want #AI enhancements enable them in the settings.

@alextecplayz@techhub.social

[pikesley@mastodon.me.uk]

@barubary @jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs @davidgerard

Should the gaslighting be opt-out?

[jaffathecake@mastodon.social]

@barubary I find the pattern of sneaking in little accusations into longer messages particularly dishonest and distasteful. So no, I do not let people get away with that. Like the accusation of calling people crazy, it's deliberate, and if challenging people who do that is disgusting, I guess that's what I am.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@giacomo @alextecplayz I don't think it's particularly unusual to offer features at the point they might be useful. This follows the pattern of e.g. asking for microphone permission. You're asked at a time that it might be useful to you, you don't have to say yes, and there are ways to avoid ever being asked.