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Hacker News

AI controls is coming to Firefox

23 points by ahlCVA

by fooey

0 subcomment

This quote is amazing
> “AI is changing the web, and people want very different things from it,” Ajit Varma, Firefox’s vice president of product, writes in the announcement. “We’ve heard from many who want nothing to do with AI. We’ve also heard from others who want AI tools that are genuinely useful. Listening to our community, alongside our ongoing commitment to offer choice, led us to build AI controls.”
some people want nothing to do with AI
other people just want the AI to actually do something

by elashri

0 subcomment

I feel like with all the AI news and headlines we are seeing lately, I bet many people including me were ready to just be angry at another Mozilla AI bloat.
But for once, it is a good thing

by pwdisswordfishy

2 subcomments

> It provides a single place to block current and future generative AI features in Firefox.
Features they could have chosen not to introduce in the first place.

by ddtaylor

1 subcomments

Firefox is supposed to be the browser were you don't have to dig through the settings every few months or year to find out what anti-patterns they added and disable them.
I stopped using it 2 years ago because that's no longer true. Time and time again I was having to dig around for whatever new setting got created and defaulted to a bad setting for a bad reason (spoiler: they want money)
At that point what am I gaining by not using Chrome, Edge, or what I ultimately use now, which is Brave. At least with Brave I get useful features like having access to Tor for basic things, great cryptocurrency support, etc.

by HelloUsername

1 subcomments

"Total Opt-Out: How to Use Firefox 148’s New Master Switch to Block All AI Features"
https://chipp.in/security-privacy/total-opt-out-how-to-use-f...

by mrandish

0 subcomment

This is a good step. It's unfortunate it came after significant user blow back from rapidly deploying AI features without surfacing these controls.
I hope the Firefox team learns from this because a vibrant, healthy Firefox is vital as an alternative to the browser engine duopoly controlled by commercial tech giants.

by k310

4 subcomments

I'd vote for Firefox blocking all AI-generated content.
IMO, hard to do, though that would streamline browsing and up the quality of it.
Cheers.

by bhhaskin

3 subcomments

This isn't what users wanted at all. You flat out ignored them. Users want this as a browser extension and not shoved down their throats.

by sublinear

0 subcomment

by anderson10002

0 subcomment

by ErroneousBosh

2 subcomments

Here's what they've apparently got in 147:
* Translations * Image alt text in Nightly PDF viewer * Tab group suggestions * Key points in link previews * Chatbot providers in sidebar
Is there a way to simply have these not present at all, for people who don't want any of them?
None of this is useful. Just stop.