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

[calx@infosec.exchange]

@firefoxwebdevs pretty nice, wish more software allowed this

[kitsunevixi@sakurajima.social]

@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.

[workingclassgames@tech.lgbt]

@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.

[alvan@social.lol]

@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.

[fabio@cosocial.ca]

@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.

[cubeofcheese@mstdn.social]

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

[wook@fosstodon.org]

@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”.)

[garretble@mastodon.social]

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

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@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.

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@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.

[justin@toot.io]

@firefoxwebdevs you should've have needed to be the first, you should never have added things users don't want. Make it plugins, then users can choose to add disgusting "AI" "features". @raymaccarthy

[budududuroiu@hachyderm.io]

@mike @firefoxwebdevs Preference falsification, it's seen as socially condemnable to be ok with AI, especially in the circles that Mozilla frequents, so I'm not surprised public comments trend negative. Given they've sent an anonymous survey out, I'm pretty sure the balance is split between the no-AI and AI everything camps.

I don't get the vitriol towards Mozilla, at least not for this change, they literally show you how to turn off their AI features

[sb@metroholografix.ca]

@firefoxwebdevs
It must be really uncomfortable for you and your team to see this outpouring of opposition to the direction you are being lead.

I hope you know its not personal. But you must understand that it is deadly serious.

Please, hear us as we all shout in unison: STOP WASTING MONEY AND ENERGY ON GRIFTS AND JUST MAKE THE BEST DAMN BROWSER YOU CAN MAKE.

[drewtowler@mas.to]

@firefoxwebdevs If you physically and permanently remove all AI-related code from Firefox, I might start using it again. Not until.

[jonny@neuromatch.social]

@jaffathecake @duke_of_germany @firefoxwebdevs i keep seeing this cop-out, but i have yet to see any polling from mozilla that says a majority of their users do want AI in their browser.

e.g. 14 days ago i see an informal poll in reddit with the same conclusion - https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1qhfvkw/interested_in_your_views_on_ai_in_firefox/

the thread inviting people to comment on the AI window a few weeks ago was the same thing, overwhelmingly negative - https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/building-ai-the-firefox-way-shaping-what-s-next-together/td-p/109922

so if in community after community people are nearly unanimous about the pivot to AI, it seems like the burden is on firefox dev team to show that there is some silent majority that is loving it rather than insisting that every community is an echo chamber

[dveditz@infosec.exchange]

@ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs
I have no idea. I hadn't seen this UI even internally until a few days ago.

[mcslibinas@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs please make separate version without any AI, without translate (made by monolinguals) and call it betterfox. It will have succes! Also less code - less bugs, less mistakes and less vulnerabilities.

Less work - more output!

[dveditz@infosec.exchange]

@vex @ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs

Google is not pushing Mozilla to use AI features. To the extent people get their answers from AI rather than doing a Google search that is _costing_ us money.

[exitcode@fosstodon.org]

@firefoxwebdevs it should be disabled by default. Also telemetry and ads tracking kill switch when?

[kitsunevixi@sakurajima.social]

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social Maybe it would've been better to just not call the on device features AI features at all. People would be more willing to try them if they don't associate them with massive GPU farms.