When will I be able to set my Ollama endpoint in Firefox? Mozilla knows about Ollama - this tool can connect to it and run local models. So why can’t Firefox use it instead of relying on cloud solutions like Anthropic, OpenAI, or Mistral?

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I like framework and also KDE, so ideal situation for me :-)

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: ArtenFrom my point of view, there are three stances toward AI. Two of them are unhelpful. One is reasonable.

• AI is evil and must be avoided in all cases. This is a bad stance.
• AI is just a tool, and when used responsibly it is reasonable to employ it. I don’t think generating an entire article with AI is a good idea, but using it for spell‑checking? If it can catch incorrect wording, that’s a worthwhile use.
• Throw AI at anything. This is also a bad stance.

This seems like a reasonable perspective, but there are several problems and caveats to it.

So, before the real problems, the main caveat: Large language model AI is so incredibly intensive in its use of computing power that it costs real serious money to use. So for instance, using generative AI just for spelling/grammar checking is incredibly wasteful; we had spelling/grammar checking before that wasn't "AI" and that just worked on your computer without requiring a subscription to anything. Currently a good deal of the real cost is hidden because most AI companies are providing their services at a serious loss, in hopes of, um . . . well, that gets complicated and sordid, but they are doing that. But my point is, a lot and perhaps most uses that seem like reasonable uses for LLM "AI" as a tool, are not worth the money those uses would actually cost unsubsidized, and subsidized use is unsustainable in the medium term . . . fairly short term at this point. Getting used to cheap AI being available as a tool is a mistake, because it will either become unavailable or become not cheap.

The real problems: There are a lot of implications to AI use which go beyond their momentary utility to the user. Yes, they're indirect and longer term so lots of people don't want to be bothered thinking about them. That doesn't make them not real. And those impacts are mostly negative, particularly given who owns AI and what their motivations are, and they are probably much larger to any given individual than the positive impacts of using the marginally useful tool. So viewing AI use solely through the lens of "Is it useful to me right now?" is a good way for us all to collectively screw ourselves in a few years.

The LLM runs on my computer without any problem. I do not pay any subscription for the LLM because I prefer privacy. I use the FOSS Ollama to run local models on my own hardware. All costs for using it are paid by me. The only hidden cost is training, which is, in principle, similar to development costs in other tools. Spell‑checking is also easier for languages like English, but not for Czech.

For local usage with open‑weight models the drawbacks are much fewer, because I do not send data for further training to the model creator. So, where is the problem?

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Quoting: CaldathrasThe misnomer "AI" is just a marketing label used to inaccurately promote LLM. In my opinion, when the backlash began against LLMs and their objectionable social, legal, economical and environmental impacts, it was convenient for the spin doctors to confuse the issue by throwing translation, grammar checking, spell checking and other older technologies that pre-date LLMs under the same label. How could we object to these uses of "AI"? We don't. We object to LLMs and how they are being promoted and presently utilized. Personally, I also object to the label "AI" because LLMs are any but intelligent.

My two cents.

Thanks, Liam, for your determined stance.

Spell checking alone isn’t enough. As a Czech speaker, I find that having an LLM correct Czech works much better. Czech is a stupidly complicated language with many illogical exceptions, so we at least need the ability to guess the context for a correct correction. Spell‑checkers were terrible before LLMs.
The same goes for English when you can’t formulate a sentence correctly. My English is terrible, so using an LLM to correct it is very useful. Can a spell checker do that for me?

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From my point of view, there are three stances toward AI. Two of them are unhelpful. One is reasonable.

• AI is evil and must be avoided in all cases. This is a bad stance.
• AI is just a tool, and when used responsibly it is reasonable to employ it. I don’t think generating an entire article with AI is a good idea, but using it for spell‑checking? If it can catch incorrect wording, that’s a worthwhile use.
• Throw AI at anything. This is also a bad stance.

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Quoting: Nezchan

Quoting: Arten

Quoting: CharlieTheMadHatterIt's sad to see Mozilla making the same bad choices. Prioritizing shareholder profits seems to come above everything else.

It's nonprofit. So, are this shareholder profits in room with you?

Mozilla Foundation, who owns the source code, is a nonprofit.

Mozilla Corporation, who makes the browser, is, well...a corporation which can make a profit. This is the entity who's worried about market share and adding AI.

And Mozilla Corporation is owned by Mozilla Foundation,. So, where are shareholders? Corporation has been established for practical reason. All profits go to Foundation. Corporation is completely under controll of foundation. So in practical sense, there is only foundation, no other shareholder trying to make profit.

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Quoting: CharlieTheMadHatterIt's sad to see Mozilla making the same bad choices. Prioritizing shareholder profits seems to come above everything else.

It's nonprofit. So, are this shareholder profits in room with you?

Firefox go extinct. This is not plan of some evil shareholders. This is attempt to get some traction and make enough income to survive. Just reminder, without firefox, forks also die. Librewolf included.

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Arten

Quoting: TheRiddick

Quoting: ArtenSo when you are in woods collect mushrooms for your consumption

In the game you literally are converting the entire biome of the planet to a giant factory for production. Since when does profit exclusively mean currency?

But converting biome into giant factory is not exclusive for capitalism (just look what communists did). And also, there are capitalistic incentives not converting everything.

Converting biome of planet into factory is what humanity do. Regardles of system.

That last is not strictly true. If you look at the history of humanity, we've been doing that for under 300 years, out of at least tens of thousands.

That is just because we did not have technology which enables real factories. But if you look what humanity did before that, you see lot of farming which replaced original nature, with food "factory" known as fields... Changing world for producing goods is what humanity do. Now, we have more coplex stuff we want to make, so we make real factories. But change is proportional to population and technology level.

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Quoting: TheRiddick

Quoting: ArtenSo when you are in woods collect mushrooms for your consumption

In the game you literally are converting the entire biome of the planet to a giant factory for production. Since when does profit exclusively mean currency?

But converting biome into giant factory is not exclusive for capitalism (just look what communists did). And also, there are capitalistic incentives not converting everything.

Converting biome of planet into factory is what humanity do. Regardles of system.

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Quoting: TheRiddick

Quoting: ArtenIt's centraly planed (by you) without free market.

I meant more in terms of converting planet into profit.

So when you are in woods collect mushrooms for your consumption or cooking in your kitchen, you do it for profit? Yes in large definition you do it for profit, but if you call it capitalism, then everithink is capitalism and word capitalism lost meaning.
You transform planet in any system. Just look what comunists did in ussr or czechoslovakia…

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