📝 Just... Please, don't
I hadn't even read about the intentions to turn Firefox into an AI browser, and I just saw this post on the Fediverse.
Does this mean Firefox will become an agentic browser?
Actual question!
If so, just... Please, don't! Take a hint from this article.
The Mozilla Corporation needs money to pay for its expenses, we all get that, but aren't there any other options? I find that unlikely.
Less unlikely, from what I've been seeing online, is a hard fork. Your user base feels more and more disenfranchised from the project, and this trend-chasing just accentuates the problem.
You want to chase new users at any cost, but you don't have any guarantees of new users. Your user base, however, the ones that have been sticking with you every step of the way, has been showing it's displeasement with the course Mozilla Corp is taking, and they may jump ship.
And I'm not even touching on the fact that, according to the Fediverse post, this may be opt-out and not opt-in. If you argue what opt-in is, it is not opt-in. So much for trustworthiness...
I'm so disappointed with this. But, honestly, it's not like it was unexpected. Remember that removal?
Look, I'm not saying AI is bad. There are use cases for it.
And I'm not saying integrating some sort of AI in Firefox is also a bad thing in itself. A small local model, with a dataset built from data with permissive licenses (e.g., Creative Commons) and also licensed with one, that creates summaries and is opt-in, whether via an add-on or built-in, can be useful to some people. Different people, different needs.
However, given all that's been happening on the corporate side of Mozilla, the users are very much skeptical and with reason.