Mozilla leadership are quite literally ex-google and current google loyalists, who are paid to create the appearance of a competitive browser landscape for regulators, judges, and lawmakers who started out obtuse and are now increasingly openly bribed.
Mozilla's job is to go through the motions of competing for regulatory obfuscation, not to ever actually compete. That's why the salaries at this non-profit keep going up as Mozilla marketshare keeps going down.
If they wanted to actually compete they could integrate with LMStudio or similar to give their non-technical users locally running open models, that would be maximally opt-in and privacy preserving. It wouldn't even take that long.
Instead, we get another resume-padding fake "product" for someone to put on their resume before it's quietly forgotten, all for a browser with 3% marketshare and plummeting.
How many more obscure lines will I need to add to my prefs to shut the AI Window up, even if it's "opt in"? How many lines are we up to now to defang the browser?
The "built for choice and control" messaging is interesting timing given how most AI tools are going the opposite direction - trying to be everything to everyone with complex configuration screens.
I've been thinking about this a lot while building in the productivity AI space. Most tools I've tried require you to set up elaborate workflows, connect 12 different services, and spend weeks tweaking prompts. The cognitive overhead defeats the purpose.
What's compelling about Firefox's approach (if they execute well) is that browser-level AI could actually understand context better than bolt-on solutions. Your browsing patterns, form fills, research sessions - there's rich signal there that doesn't require you to explicitly configure anything.
I got early access to ungrind.ai which takes a similar philosophy for email/meeting productivity - zero configuration, just connects to Gmail and starts working. The technical challenge is making the AI smart enough to infer intent without explicit rules, but when it works, the UX is so much cleaner.
The real test will be whether Firefox can resist feature creep. "Built for choice and control" sounds great until product managers start adding dozens of toggles and options.
Anyone know if they're planning to expose APIs for developers to build on top of their AI layer?
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[ 14.3 ms ] story [ 599 ms ] threadSo, unsurprising.
Is it just Mozilla testing the waters with the announcement?
Mozilla's job is to go through the motions of competing for regulatory obfuscation, not to ever actually compete. That's why the salaries at this non-profit keep going up as Mozilla marketshare keeps going down.
If they wanted to actually compete they could integrate with LMStudio or similar to give their non-technical users locally running open models, that would be maximally opt-in and privacy preserving. It wouldn't even take that long.
Instead, we get another resume-padding fake "product" for someone to put on their resume before it's quietly forgotten, all for a browser with 3% marketshare and plummeting.
Does this just mean "the basilisk is coming and we want to make sure we're seen serving it"
and a response discussion:
I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926779
I've been thinking about this a lot while building in the productivity AI space. Most tools I've tried require you to set up elaborate workflows, connect 12 different services, and spend weeks tweaking prompts. The cognitive overhead defeats the purpose.
What's compelling about Firefox's approach (if they execute well) is that browser-level AI could actually understand context better than bolt-on solutions. Your browsing patterns, form fills, research sessions - there's rich signal there that doesn't require you to explicitly configure anything.
I got early access to ungrind.ai which takes a similar philosophy for email/meeting productivity - zero configuration, just connects to Gmail and starts working. The technical challenge is making the AI smart enough to infer intent without explicit rules, but when it works, the UX is so much cleaner.
The real test will be whether Firefox can resist feature creep. "Built for choice and control" sounds great until product managers start adding dozens of toggles and options.
Anyone know if they're planning to expose APIs for developers to build on top of their AI layer?