Its so over. Time to finally fork off.
Fuck AI
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
I just switched to using Zen because of this. I need to get used to this new browser but if I can evade AI through this I gladly learn how another browser works.
The Venn diagram of Firefox users who want an AI browser is zero.
Know your customer.
They want the new customers.
They would get new customers by being the clean browser without any of this ai bullshit. It was a free reason to use the browser. Let's hope forks are still viable, Mozilla cannot stop fucking up.
Evidence suggests they would trade every one of their current users for someone completely new, chosen at random. Current users of Firefox forks are probably even less desirable customers.
McDonalds want's new customers too, but that doesn't mean that they should announce that they're going to be focusing on expanding McDonalds into a sushi restaurant. Sure sushi is great, but it has an entirely different supply chain and preparation method than hamburgers. By pushing McSushi you both risk driving away driving away customers who only wanted a simple burger joint as well as risking introducing inefficiencies as your hamburger cooks and sushi chefs trip over each other in the kitchen.
I'm really, really upset that you put the image of McSushi into my head. Well done.
Yeah, that's great Mozilla. Have fun with that. You just make sure that shit can be compiled out so I can use a forked project that's had all the stupid sanitized out of it.
Honestly none of this sounds good.
Firefox will grow into a suite of software? Why?
People just want Mozilla to make Firefox fast and modern (I.e. renders their content, follows web standards correctly, is secure)
AI and whatever else is just a distraction from the one product people want.
Do you know the saying, something like "traffic engineers are paid to build roads, they are not paid to not build roads"
In line with this, MBAs will do MBA things.
Firefox will grow into a suite of software? Why?
My guess is that this is just a branding push. Not so much "the firefox browser will start doing all sorts of non browser things" and more like "we're going to call our non-browser things firefox".
For example:
- Thunderbird -> Firefox Mail
- Mozilla VPN -> Firefox VPN
You already lost my trust at "something you can turn off". This shit doesn't not need to be enabled by default in the first place.
I hope this doesn't screw over the forks like LibreWolf, IceCat, and Waterfox.
These two statements seem at odds:
AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.
And later:
It will evolve into a modern AI browser
Turn it off with the X in the top corner


People trust our brand.
Unspoken rest of the idea, “Let’s take advantage of that.”
Mozilla continuing to take wrong turns.
While this is obviously not thrilling news to the fuck_ai crowd, it isn’t that bad either.
A new CEO is going to express a grand vision. In fact, we kind of hope they do lest they be weaselly caretakers who flip-flop on major initiatives.
And AI is pretty much every other word in any tech CEO’s statement right now. They get penalized if they don’t use it. I’m reading it here like, “All you big institutional donors, don’t fret we’re still in the goddamned boat with you fuckers” while at the same time saying “well turn it off if you want” - a kind of common sense statement sorely lacking in exactly this kind of statement.
So I give it a B- / C+. Not in danger yet, just needs improvement. A statement like this can’t really “win” anything so you want people to be sort of interested and kinda bored with it. Perfect.
I love your optimism. I don't share it, but I love it. I hope you're right.
We will develope a new API in partnership with AI providers that allows for tighter integration with our browser. To the point, a user can easily make it agentic if they want to. Or they can opt into the parts they want.
We are starting a new team that will work with such AI developers to ensure that the plugins they deploy both properly notify/request user permissions and only send the data they say they will.
That's the "Let's go AI!" while also being "We aren't sheep!" message.
Firefox should be the "user choice" browser
It will evolve into a modern AI browser
Are you serious right now bro?!! We don't want an AI Browser!! We want a browser that keeps us private, secure and safe and doesn't include any AI slop....
Fuuuucckk!
I've stuck with Mozilla for so long despite missing a lot of things I could've had, you know, for freedom.
But this is not the correct course anymore. This sounds like the same AI bullshit we get shoved down our throats everywhere.
Business speak like always, which tbh normal people should just tune out. We'll see if firefox changes for the good or for the worse when it gets updated.
Give it a little more thought and I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion as most of us
I hope all those added AI features everyone pushes out now are implemented in a way so that the rest of the software still works after the AI bubble bursts.
Otherwise, we're being steered towards a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.
This is not why I use firefox
Cool, cool... time to unistall Firefox then.
Some people want AI? Fine, there are plugins for that. Just stop the bullshit and focus on
- Stability
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Compliance to standards
Add a nice and customizable GUI and plugin support and you are golden.
Are there things an "AI browser" can do that a normal browser with an AI plugin can't? Fine, then improve the plugin support. Stay in your lane.
I feel like we are just collectively on the cusp of discovering a new browser and walking away from Firefox.
Just the way we all discovered Firefox back in the day and said fuck any other browser.
I forgot to make a donation to Ladybird. Mozilla is fucked up beyond repair.
April fools! Haha... Wait... Guys?... It's April, right?.... Guys?.... Tell me it's FUCKING APRIL!
Ok get fucked Mozilla. Lynx it is...
But what does "modern AI browser" mean. Do I need tokens for web searches? Tokens for page loads? Am I only allowed to go to sites the browser decides based on my past history, also paid for with tokens?
Again, I’m a pro (local) LLM extremist as far as the Fediverse goes, but “automated” browsers should not be shipped by default like this.
It should be a separate tool or “mode” or extension you choose to activate temporarily, with very narrow scopes. Things like “turn this webpage dark and get rid of the autoplay videos” or “filter the AI slop from these results” or “put this messy shopping site into a table for me.” Not the 100,000th implementation of an “ask me anything!” Chatbot shoved in your face like Copilot.
And FYI, we already have them. FF doesn’t need to do it:
https://github.com/browseros-ai/BrowserOS
https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Perplexica
Honestly, “AI” feels like a disease infecting boards and high level executives. Or perhaps more accurately, the Orions Arm definition of a Meme:
https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47abccd6ee698
Memetic Demons are self-perpetuating patterns which use mental and social processes as their hardware and software, propagating ideas and belief systems with negative social and psychological effects.
Where - as standard totemic memes often work to attain the best for all sentients they come in contact with, or at least maintain an equilibrium (happiness vs. suffering, life vs. death), memetic demons seem to promote their own group or cause at the expense of all others. This may include any number of clever and insidious behaviors that either attack sentients external to the group or coerce the initiation of individuals reasoned to be "strong" in some regard.
Even for a company like Mozilla, once the idea is planted, it’s like they can’t think straight, and feel compelled to shove copilot into whatever their specialization is immediately.
Well fuck
Thank Satan for all those projects that de-trash Firefox for everyone. Not waterfox though, that dev has explicitly said he isn’t committed to personal privacy and such.
