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Firefox dev clarifies that AI features will be 'opt-in' and there will be a 'killswitch' to disable them

⁨206⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ryujin470@fedia.io⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://fedia.io/media/32/3a/323a4d88f0f02ab98c208bdd975bf01656b92d97a4205d1916f337537653a9a0.jpg

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Comments

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  • natecox@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    [deleted]
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    • Feyd@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I dunno that seems very compatible with

      AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.

      Also here is a link to the posts mastodon.social/…/115740500373677782

      Also, the dev says the following and I think they have a point.

      I’m not asking for faith in our direction - the thing I love about the Firefox community is how open, honest, and technical it is.

      But I do ask that you don’t have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we’re going to do the wrong thing here.

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      • TehPers@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        try not to be determined that we’re going to do the wrong thing here.

        There’s a lot Mozilla has done right, but there’s a lot they haven’t done right as well. These days, the cynical view has proven itself to be more reliable in general, so it’s hard not to apply it here as well.

        That being said, FF has supported AI chatbots for a while and I haven’t seen it come up once in my browser beyond when they said “this is a thing now”. But this has also been a good opportunity to explore alternatives, so I’m trying out Zen now (ff-based still).

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      • MotoAsh@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Something easily turned off is distinctly not opt in. They’re still lying to everyone.

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    • theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Maybe but I although critical of some recent firefox actions think its possible given the og statement it is a clarification from a somewhat vague statement that was taken in the worst possible way by some and posted again and again often by people not even reading beyond the headline.

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    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Changes course swerves erratically before continuing in the same general direction.

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  • BarbedDentalFloss@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Is the killswitch in settings? Because I had to set browser.ml.enable to false in about:config since there was nothing related to it in settings

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    • SmoochyPit@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yeah, that’d be like the web browser equivalent of going into the Windows registry editor and changing a value in there. Like, it’s there, but unless you already know what you’re looking for, it’s not really an option.

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    • vivi@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      They have said they will make one outside of about:config.

      connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/…/true#M42473

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  • BurgerBaron@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yeah. I’m still pissed off dev hours get wasted on this shit instead of, idk, HDR support? Persistent pinned tabs?

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  • XLE@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    They say a switch will be built in. There is no switch yet. Which means the deluge of little popups about AI tab grouping and the “look at Perplexity” messages are not going away until these changes are actually released.

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    • cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      the killswitch is in about:config

      browser.ml.enable
browser.ml.chat.enabled
browser.ml.chat.menu
browser.ml.chat.page
browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge
browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge
browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
extensions.ml.enabled
browser.search.visualSearch.featureGate
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      • XLE@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        That’s… Not really a switch. If somebody has to go to a secret place, get past a warning sign, and type in a half dozen secret commands… it sounds more like an espionage movie than the flipping of a switch.

        And people have already complained that some of those flags don’t affect newer ones, which Mozilla keeps adding. We might as well say Microsoft has a setting to turn off telemetry, never mind it’s also hidden and it also keeps getting switched back on.

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      • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        This is 12 switches

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      • nymnympseudonym@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Or you could just use Librewolf

        FF build with adblock built in and AI/spyware ripped out

        https://LibreWolf.net

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      • vivi@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        they have said they will make an option that is not in about:config

        connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/…/true#M42473

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  • cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    then make it an extension.

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    • slacktoid@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Hmm no

      Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.

      Thats the first paragraph from their mission statement here www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/

      Doesn’t say anything about environmentally friendly. Also I think this part “where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.”, and their stance on AI in their browser and it being opt in make sense. Some people want to use it. Let them have a safe and private way to use it. Maybe Mozilla can show how a privacy respecting AI experience can be. Wouldn’t that still be a net good?

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      • fullsquare@awful.systems ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        no no no no it’s on by default so it’s opt-out, and switch for that isn’t even implemented yet

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      • MotoAsh@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        “people first”

        puts AI in

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  • SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    “You won this round. But we’ll try again tomorrow!”

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  • Xylight@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Thank god we have a photo of the firefox logo instead of an article

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  • Kichae@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    This is good enough for me. This means the Firefox code base will not get so integrated with AI features that forkers cannot remove them, and that was my primary concern.

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  • 0ndead@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Get a new CEO and get back to me

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  • calliope@retrolemmy.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Firefox has actually become less stable for me, which is crazy because it was stable for several years.

    Firefox had gotten bloated and unstable when Chrome first came out, too.

    Why does Mozilla always trend toward mediocrity?

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    • Digit@lemmy.wtf ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The enshitification of Firefox may slow at times, but it’s been consistently getting worse since Firefox 2.0 over 2 decades ago.

      I wonder if it’s google telling Mozilla what to do, to keep getting their money.

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  • MolochHorridus@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    The best killswitch is called Librewolf. Another good one is Waferfox.

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    • Jack@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Anyone know why LibreWolf isn’t in the default Debian repositories? I trust Debian - I’m not going to add a repository to get LibreWolf.

      Until it’s available from a default Debian repo, I’ll keep going thru my list of all the garbage I have to go switch off in Settings and about:config every time I install Firefox for someone.

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    • FatVegan@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I just installed librewolf yesterday. Pretty cool, except for the no dark mode thing.

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  • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Opt-in you say? How about RMB click with AI chatbot that you can disable by clicking “Disable AI bot” there? Wasn’t opt-in first. And, how is that in aboug:config .ml. list contains tons of entries set to True, rather than False? How in the fuck is it opt-in? It has been opt-out and in order to opt-out most of it, you would need an intermediate/advanced user. There was no toggle switch on a sidebar for normies to see and click. I call BS on this statement.

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  • ramenu@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yawn. People have been saying “Screw MozIlla, I’m switching browsers now!”

    Nothing new. Just disable the feature like you do with telemetry lol.

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    • optissima@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I disabled telemetry by switching browsers tho

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      • biotin7@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        You cannot do that in chrome.

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      • Digit@lemmy.wtf ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yep, faster and easier than spending an hour configuring Firefox every time reinstalling it on a new OS install.

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  • flamingos@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Link to the article as it doesn’t show up on Lemmy: gamingonlinux.com/…/firefox-dev-clarifies-there-w…

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  • leadpipe@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Too late, I switched

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  • mesamunefire@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    good.

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  • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Lol, lmao. Still deleting firefox, get fucked. Mozilla betrayed its users trust by choosing to follow this slop trend, and they’ll suffer the consequences.

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    • biotin7@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      & you’ll suffer the consequences of monopoly.

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      • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Why should I wait it out with a company that’s betrayed the userbase’s trust when it comes to not only privacy, but by also implementing a feature that everyone KNOWS is harmful to both the planet and society as a whole.

        I’ve already moved browsers to one that respects its users enough to not push something that’s a quick cashgrab while it burns the planet and harvests our data.

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    • Paulemeister@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      So you’ll just not visit websites at all anymore?

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      • eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The rms approach looks better and better.

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      • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yep, never using the internet again. Firefox is the only platform available to browse the internet, and since they’re sloppifying themselves I’m leaving the whole internet.

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  • Butterbee@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    For now.

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    They really should have come out with a local llm poduct seperate from firefox that is compatible with using it out of box.

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  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    5min ago some heresay said it would be easy to opt-out.

    Can’t believe anything until it’s out.

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  • Digit@lemmy.wtf ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Oh great, another item to waste my time checking when installing Firefox… Already takes near an hour to configure Firefox each time… Now have to watch out for the day they let the rest of that AI camel in the tent.

    *Installs LibreWolf, stays sane*

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    • pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      i don’t distrohop so my betterfox user.js is serving me well.

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  • FaceDeer@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I guess we'll see what people here find to complain about now.

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  • BobQuasit@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Too little too late

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  • eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    That’s a contradiction

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