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Mozilla rolls out first AI features in Firefox Nightly, and theyre actually useful. (blog.mozilla.org)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/firefox@lemmy.ml
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Tldr: Theyre adding an opt-in alt text generation for blind people and an opt-in ai chat sidebar where you can choose the model used (includes self-hosted ones)

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[–] 66 points 2 years ago (16 children)

I like how it is opt-in.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Self-hosted and locally run models also goes a long way. 90% of LLMs applications don't require users to surrender their devices, data, privacy and security to big corporations. But that is exactly how the space is being run right now.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

    deleted by creator

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    The alternative is only supporting self hosted LLMs, though, right?

    Imagine the scenario: you're a visually impaired, non-technical user. You want to use the alt-text generation. You're not going to go and host your own LLM, you're just going to give up and leave it.

    In the same way, Firefox supports search engines that sell your data, because a normal, non-technical user just wants to Google stuff, not read a series of blog posts about why they should actually be using something else.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    deleted by creator

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Ah, I missed that alt text specifically is local, but the point stands, in that allowing (opt-in) access to a 3rd party service is reasonable, even if that service doesn't have the same privacy standards as Mozilla itself

    To pretty much every non-technical user, an AI sidebar that won't work with ChatGPT (Google search's equivalent from my example previously) may as well not be there at all

    They don't want to self host an LLM, they want the box where chat gpt goes

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

    deleted by creator

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    If it was truly opt-in, it could be an extension. They should not be bundling this with the browser, bloating it more in the process.

    The extension API doesn't have enough access for this.

    You technically can run your own local AI, but they hook up to the big data-hungry ones out of the box.

    While it is opt-in and disabled by default, this is the real problem.

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  • [+] -3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Mozilla isn't in charge of the extension API, it uses Chromium's WebExtensions API

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  • [+] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Look at the Firefox subreddit. One month ago, people were criticizing the thought of adding AI to Firefox. Two months ago, same thing. Look at the Firefox community. See how many times people requested AI.

    I believe what most people are concerned about, including myself, was the AI features being enabled automatically and then having to disable it like every other application would do to inflate metrics.

    Because this is opt in like it says in the blog I am ok with it there and disabled.

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