Support us on Patreon
PayPalMozilla are leaning even more into AI, with the announcement today of Thunderbolt - their open-source and self-hostable AI client. The AI madness will continue until morale improves the world burns.
Mozilla say it's designed as a "sovereign AI client" where you can interact with AI via chat, search, and research, connect to enterprise data, and choose the models and tools yourself. Mozilla (specifically MZLA Technologies Corporation) have partnered with deepset a Berlin-based AI infrastructure company behind the popular open-source Haystack agent framework for this to work.
“AI is too important to outsource. With Thunderbolt, we’re giving organizations a sovereign AI client that allows them to decide how AI fits into their workflows – on their infrastructure, with their data, and on their terms.”Ryan Sipes, CEO of MZLA Technologies Corporation
This is mainly aimed at organisations though, rather than basic consumers like you and me. Mozilla says it allows orgs to:
- Run AI with their choice of models, from leading commercial providers to open-source and local models
- Connect to systems and data: Integrate with pipelines and open protocols, including deepset’s Haystack platform, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, and agents with the Agent Client Protocol (ACP)
- Automate workflows and recurring tasks: Generate daily briefings, monitor topics, compile reports, or trigger actions based on events and schedules
- Work seamlessly across devices with native applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android
- Maintain security with self-hosted deployment, optional end-to-end encryption, and device-level access controls
See more in the announcement.
At least if various forms of AI are going to be forced upon us all, it should all be open source. They really need to work on their naming though. Thunderbolt is already a thing, a well-known thing in tech.
What do you make of Mozilla's new AI move?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
This won't have a marketing hype machine behind it - which is largely what's still driving the bubble - so I don't know how far this will get.
Quoting: dpanterWhy. 🤮I think the idea is fine: stop giving your data to "AI" companies that keep promising magical capabilities with no real-world data to back it up, and host it yourself.
However, when "AI" is self-hosted, I think the generally negative cost-to-benefit ratio of the whole thing becomes even more apparent, and there's no social media pressure to "just use this model instead, bro, I swear it's better, pinky-promise you're missing out / falling behind / won't get to hang with the cool kids".
AllyTheProtogen 3 hours ago
Of course, do keep fighting this shit, it shouldn't exist. But I constantly ask myself that question every day.
Quoting: spiffykWell, at least they don't have an anus for the logo.Ainus
walther von stolzing 2 hours ago
Thunderbolt is already a thing, a well-known thing in tech.Yeah, not only that, but my mind went to Mozilla's other (?!) Thunderb*** immediately -- 'are they changing Thunderbird's name? Is this a typo? Is this a chatbot inside Thunderbird? Is Thunderbird going to force-summarize my emails from now on?', etc.
Last edited by walther von stolzing on 16 Apr 2026 at 2:46 pm UTC
And Thunderbolt? Really?
I'm more and more glad that I stopped donating to Mozilla. Which still feel weird to say.
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck