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IMHO the issue with Firefox "adopting AI" is way overblown. Yes, AI is not great (especially if it's done with speculative bubble and cash burning by big-tech) and it's questionable ethics wise but… sometimes it's usefull and people do use it…

Also what's the alternative? Crappy reskins of chromium? :/

At least Mozilla seems to listen and reacted to the backlash. Imagine google doing that…

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The thing about xbox controller is so annoying… they are way better than the PS ones and I love the quality (MS had made really great pheriperials in the past) but the need to use windows to updated it makes me furios… I can't wait for valve controllers to arrive!

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I bought Flick Shot Rogues earlier this month since it was on sale until today. Figured it wouldn't get an even bigger discount immediately after since it's a recent release. Guess what!

That'll be it for me this season, not much time to play.

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This is when the follow up part of my game, Don't Hurt My Wallet!, kicks in; having been on the fence about certain games, when sales on them kick in and I'm still on the fence, I don't really want it and remove it from my Wishlist. Your wallet and inability to choose a game to play will thank you!

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Quoting: GoEsr

But I do ask that you don't have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we're going to do the wrong thing here.

Experience?

we cannot have the opposite of faith or the reverse. So um... Quantum faith ?

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Quoting: no_information_hereb) Vivaldi has made a public no-AI statement. I prefer FF, but a good alternative is sitting there waiting.

I would be careful about Vivaldi as the CEO has made some weird political statements in the past - though I'm no longer able to find any of them at all potentially due to search being scrubbed, as for Proton (this being relevant because Vivaldi ships free Proton VPN) I'm not sure of it sometimes but personally I don't use their services except email.

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But I do ask that you don't have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we're going to do the wrong thing here.

Experience?

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"We've served you raw sewage with your meal, but don't worry! It's in a separate glass in case you don't want it."

Even if we charitably assume that there won't be any caveats with it being opt-in or with the kill switch, it still reflects poorly on Mozilla that they're even pursuing this garbage in the first place.

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Quoting: sarmadIf everything is opt-in as this dev says, then I think their new CEO simply gave the wrong message by calling it an AI browser.

So the CEO of Mozilla has zero idea about the product they are managing. Yet we have to trust a dev that says " I hope we can (re)gain your trust here. I don't personally work on this stuff, "

So one dev who doesnt work on it and a CEO who called it an Ai Browser.

Im getting serious " Everything Computer " vibes here.

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Quoting: sarmadIf everything is opt-in as this dev says, then I think their new CEO simply gave the wrong message by calling it an AI browser.

So the CEO of Mozilla has zero idea about the product they are managing. Yet we have to trust a dev that says " I hope we can (re)gain your trust here. I don't personally work on this stuff, "

So one dev who doesnt work on it and a CEO who called it an Ai Browser.

Im getting serious " Everything Computer " vibes here.

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Yeah, no... Not givin' these folks another thin dime until they address the many bugs in their game that cause random freezes and crashes and loss of character controls resulting in the loss of entire vehicles and literally all equipment in your character's inventory. So far I have two entire vehicles trapped behind the cliff faces of the game world (of a limited number of vehicles you're even allowed to craft) and "support" basically tells me there's nothing they can do. Can't retrieve them, can't destroy them, and "support" can't do anything? No thanks. I'm done.

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What do you think to this? Let us know in the comments.

First: I trust the devs far more than the ceo's. Unfortunately, it will not be developers who will be making the decisions.

As for what was said: Single "ai" switch is good. Admittedly, the bar has been set low by big tech (and firefox itself), but I think I would have been happy with this even in a world where fake intelligence was not being shoved down user's throats left and right.

The devil is, of course, in the details. For example, they could be planning on a malicious implementation where tons of actual useful features are linked to the kill switch and users are faced with the choice of either all or none of them.

Ideal implementation would be a single section in the settings where every single "ai" thingy is listed, master switch on top to enable/disable all, with fine grained control to switch individual items on and off.

Which still leaves the other elephant in the room, though: mozilla still has the fundamental conflict of interest of being an advertisement company delivering a browser. Fine for users who like ads, but not so good for those who demand a browser that is truly designed for the them.

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"All AI features will also be opt-in"

This is the important piece. A kill switch is no use if features aren't opt-in in the first place.

If everything is opt-in as this dev says, then I think their new CEO simply gave the wrong message by calling it an AI browser. There is a difference between being an AI browser, and having AI features that people can trigger if/when needed. I personally wouldn't mind some AI features that I can trigger when needed, like page summarizing, grammar correct, translations, etc.

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YES! I just glanced at my wishlist sorted by discount and there's a ton of stuff under $10. Going to probably spend way too much money and just grow the backlog to infinity!

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BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH OMG

🤣😂😅

these fools think we are THAT dumb? Man I needed a good laugh this afternoon, thank you :)

FF/mozilla is WAY too far gone for a 5 second bluesky post to make one iota of difference. Librewolf and Zen are both rock solid alternatives. Zen is going great for me right now.

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As I said in the previous thread: I like Firefox, will continue to use it, and I will take Mozilla at their word. If there's a "kill switch" that lets me turn off all AI features so I don't have to use it, then that's all I ask for in this regard.

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I should get through my massive backlog before buying anything new 😆

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"Stellaris Prime" sounds like a Paradox/Amazon team-up. 😟

But this does remind me of the Savage Planet series of games. I remember vaguely hearing about them on release, feeling mildly interested, but never following up and checking them out thoroughly, so I'll have to go do that. 🙂

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Quoting: williamjcm25.3.0/1 had a bug that forced me to downgrade to 25.2.7 if I wanted to use SteamVR, so let's hope that one's fixed too.

Also had to do the same thing here. Not in 25.3.2 but it looks like there's a Merge Request open with a fix!

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/836#issuecomment-3665458999 -> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/38987

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a) There should have already been a kill switch. I shouldn't have had to go into about:config and mess with a bunch of settings over the last few browser updates.

b) Vivaldi has made a public no-AI statement. I prefer FF, but a good alternative is sitting there waiting.

c) Mozilla really needs to move the HQ away from San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The toxic inward-looking techbro culture is corrosive, no matter how much they might try to be different. Almost anywhere else would be better, maybe even Europe.

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Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.

Hmm... now you made me curious what you replaced it with. The only other widespread browser engines I am aware of are made by Google and Apple. And replacing the only major free browser engine with a corporate product would be an interesting choice, wouldn't it?

In my case, I switched to LibreWolf. It's Firefox based but with enhanced tracking protection (anti fingerprinting) and with all the stupid things Firefox has been adding lately also removed.

Took me like 5 minutes to switch: install the browser, copy the profile from Firefox and done, I had all my tabs, all my extensions, the configuration, etc.

The only warning is due to the enhanced tracking protection, some pages might break (e.g. typically calendar apps will show incorrect time due to timezone spoofing) or if you use dark theme it might get ignored. You can disable the protections globally or per site to go back to the correct behavior.

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Quoting: doragasuToo late, today I switched to LibreWolf after literally DECADES of loyalty, and everything is working great, I'm not going back unless things change A LOT.

Also about that killswitch, let me guess, it will be opt-out and will reset each time a update is installed, right?

btw read those settings above. They are currently enabled in Librewolf too.

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Too late, today I switched to LibreWolf after literally DECADES of loyalty, and everything is working great, I'm not going back unless things change A LOT.

Also about that killswitch, let me guess, it will be opt-out and will reset each time a update is installed, right?

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Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.

Hmm... now you made me curious what you replaced it with. The only other widespread browser engines I am aware of are made by Google and Apple. And replacing the only major free browser engine with a corporate product would be an interesting choice, wouldn't it?

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Quoting: Cley_Fayeso I'll take the kill switch.

_
As i mentioned in my other post, i'll take the conscientious FOSS Dev's pouring over the code to make sure it's actually fully 'Off'.

Speaking of which:

Spoiler, click me

Apple experienced a significant security flaw in FaceTime in early 2019 that allowed users to eavesdrop on others without their knowledge or consent. This bug affected the Group FaceTime feature and sparked widespread concern over user privacy.

The issue was first discovered in January 2019 and became publicly known when it was reported that a teenager in Texas had found the vulnerability and alerted Apple. Notably, the bug allowed a caller to activate the microphone—and in some cases, the front-facing camera—of the recipient’s device even if the recipient did not answer the call

Is that related to Ai ? Not specifically but it does show how a piece of software can be unintentionally ( or maliciously) coded to function in a way that the user has no knowledge of until it's too late. We trust these devices more than ever, there can be no ambiguity with privacy or security and by extension we have to place a certain degree of trust in the Company maintaining the software.

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I'm not totally agreeing with the direction Mozilla is taking Firefox. And by that I mean I'm opposed to many of the decisions that plagued the software in the last half decade.

This is another one. The "AI everywhere" thing is problematic for a lot of reasons, some listed here:

- privacy issue with third party
- trust in the software itself
- normalizing uses that may or may not have short and long-term negative impact on people
- diverting funding for small-ish projects (I'm sure integrating AI everywhere is far from free in term of dev time)
- aggressive "be all end all" approach
- intrusiveness

With that said. If Mozilla is bent on adding these features, AND they keep maintaining Firefox as a browser (you know, the thing it should be), keep it as compliant as possible with evolving specs, etc., while having a clear, proven to work "AI kill switch" on the side, sure, why not.

I still fear that this will lead to less resources allocated to actually useful stuff, and that it is part of normalizing the mindset of "we can't do anything without AI", but currently the alternative is "go back to chrome" or "use forks that don't have the resources to keep things clean", so I'll take the kill switch.

…until some other, more sane alternative gets seriously worked on. If the FSF decided to publish and maintain a free, working browser, I'd up my donations I guess. Or to anyone else for that matter; a working, up-to-date browser is kind of a big thing these days.

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btw in the last Firefox thread someone mentioned you have to set 'browser.ml.enable' to 'false' in about:config.

Actually it might be more like a whole bunch of this:

browser.ml.enable

browser.ml.chat.enabled

browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled

extensions.ml.enabled

browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled

browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled

browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge

browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge

browser.ml.chat.shortcuts

browser.ml.chat.shortcuts.custom

browser.ml.chat.sidebar

browser.ml.checkForMemory

browser.ml.linkPreview.shift

____________
Disclaimer*: Im not advocating for anyone to do this, if it breaks your browser experience then that's on you to set at your own discretion. Just pointing out how un-user friendly this is for non tech savvy folk who want to use firefox daily.

Just Having a big 'Turn Ai Off' button is pretty lame, it should either be a browser extension or be turned Off by Default and have a pop up to ask if the user want's it enabled ( within which information is displayed as to how it works and what data is gathered in full )

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When talking about 'Ai' , but for web use when asking simple questions it always seems to present anything you asked about as being correct even if it's not.. it's kind of hard to explain but almost like excessive flattery, & the information isn't always correct when i do manual research on the same question, perhaps i look at a tutorial video. i.e the consensus vs the common-sense(sus) from a human.

But then, if you ask it something intentionally controversial it reverts to what seems like a pre-defined script offering no true insight but just guard rails to shuffle you back to a predefined end point, no learning, no intelligence essentially ingrained propaganda.. it reminds me of the basic talk programs i used to write on my ZXSpectrum , literally no better.

And to think that there is around half a trillion $ invested in this stuff. What's a viable use case so far for normal people to subscribe and pay for it ? , im not even convinced there is any enhanced ad tracking revenue from it either more than the current algorithms. Just a way to summarize (badly) a webpage and render some creepy looking images , which again .. im not paying either. Oh and Ai music isn't anything other than formulaic garbage.

What about the mistakes too, no human required to vet that brand new Ai vibe code when machines start faltering and killing people ? Sound's like it will cost a lot more money in the end and possible prison sentences.

Im not against tech in general, this time though i just don't see it doing anything other than augmenting existing situations but with the same caveats as a normal system which is that a human needs to trust that system and that still requires non Ai human intervention.

BTW not convinced by FF here, i run Librewolf which also has the ML turned on by default. Not sure where to turn but im pleased there are Dev's out there keeping a beady eye on any blackbox stealth features these companies might add.

That's the power of FOSS :)

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On one hand I'm glad, but on the other hand, I'm starting to think that Mozilla would be better off if they put slightly more of their budget towards getting competent PR people, rather than AI features.

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I assume the first video on the Steam page is the same as the YouTube trailer; YouTube seems to be actively hostile to non-Chrome browsers yet again.

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