5 ms·

The latest quagmire is Firefox adding a completely optional AI sidebar? Seriously, some people are impossible to please. Just don’t open it if you don’t like it

by Aeolun 11mo ago

The latest quagmire is Firefox adding a completely optional AI sidebar? Seriously, some people are impossible to please. Just don’t open it if you don’t like it…

tumult 11mo ago
No. There is a lot more than that. The AI stuff appears in places in the UI where other things used to, like in right-click menus and when you are entering text into fields. And it's not opt-in. It's on by default. Unless you are willing to search for how to turn it off and open the non-GUI about:config stuff and modify raw settings in a text table (with no descriptions or help text next to them) then you can't even turn it off. Also, the AI stuff takes up disk space.
- abdullahkhalids 11mo ago
  The default Right Click Menu in Firefox is - Icon bar: Back, Forward, Reload, Bookmark - Save Page As... - Select All - Take Screenshot - Ask An AI Chatbot - View Page Source - Inspect Accessibility Properties - Inspect I would bet that 99% of Firefox users have never ever even once clicked on any of the options besides the first one (icon bar).
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- petesergeant 11mo ago
  > No. There is a lot more than that. There's not really though. The most annoying thing was when highlighting text a weird icon showed up. I clicked on it, and one of the most prominent buttons on it was "turn this shit off". So I did. This will probably be a bit useful for me when I want to copy web pages into Gemini for data extraction.
sfRattan 11mo ago
I've added a room to your home. Sometimes, there's a butler in there who seems absentminded and can only remember things up to a few thousand words. He once stacked all your dishes in the refrigerator and dumped all the food into the sink. Other times, there's a demon in there who seems hellbent on destroying the innocence of your children and ripping apart your family. He once gave your children snuff films and instructions to build a bomb. Just don't open the door if you don't like it... Some people are impossible to please.
- Aeolun 11mo ago
  No, no. > I've added a room to your home. They’ve added a room to their home. That they let you live in, for free. I’ll also mention that the room right next to it had all the contents you claim to take issue with. The problem here is that you shouldn’t leave children home alone, not that it has two potentially dangerous rooms. There’s several more such rooms in your house, and you wouldn’t let them cook or use your power tools by themselves either (not until they prove they can be trusted with that anyway).
  - sfRattan 11mo ago
    Yes, this is why we routinely fill council homes (or public project housing) with amnesiac butlers to rearrange the residents' possessions, and also with demons for, um, reasons. Completely reasonable things to do. How else would we recoup our investment in the hugely expensive, unpredictable butler/demon spawning machines? >The problem here is that you shouldn’t leave children home alone, not that it has two potentially dangerous rooms. There’s several more such rooms in your house, and you wouldn’t let them cook or use your power tools by themselves either (not until they prove they can be trusted with that anyway). Depends on age, and the children in question. Also, if I have power tools it's because I chose them. And neither amnesiac butlers nor stochastic demons are necessary to not starve in the way that cooking food is, so the assessments of risk and basic good sense are not comparable.
  - mvdtnz 11mo ago
    > They’ve added a room to their home. That they let you live in, for free. They don't let you stay there for free. They let you stay there because the world's biggest advertising company pays them to.
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
- NicuCalcea 11mo ago
  > Just don't open the door if you don't like it... Some people are impossible to please. I mean... yeah? Do you use every feature of every piece of software you have installed?
throwaway1389z 11mo ago
Based on the article, you have to disable a whole heap of AI features, not a simple optional AI sidebar. This include things like using AI to assist with rendering/processing of PDF, looking at the flags. As a Firefox users, this seems very troubling to me.
- Aeolun 11mo ago
  That’s what the flags seem to have as a subject sure, but my firefox hasn’t spammed AI in my face even once, and I’ve looked at a lot of PDF’s, so clearly it’s not mandatory.
  - throwaway1389z 11mo ago
    Did you check your network logs when opening PDFs? Why these flags are there to begin with?
- sunaookami 11mo ago
  >This include things like using AI to assist with rendering/processing of PDF, looking at the flags. Firefox is downloading a local model and using that to add alt-text to images inside PDFs which is great for accessibility. You can see all models that Firefox downloaded at about:addons. Every AI feature besides the (optional) sidebar (obviously) are local modals that run completely on-device.
  - throwaway1389z 11mo ago
    This is bad. Very bad. AI models hallucinate and can make big mistakes. No browser should try to alter content without explicit user consent.
phyzome 11mo ago
And added Perplexity to the search engines, and did the tab grouping thing, and took away keyboard shortcut space for the sidebar...

by Aeolun 11mo ago

The latest quagmire is Firefox adding a completely optional AI sidebar? Seriously, some people are impossible to please. Just don’t open it if you don’t like it…

tumult 11mo ago

No. There is a lot more than that. The AI stuff appears in places in the UI where other things used to, like in right-click menus and when you are entering text into fields. And it's not opt-in. It's on by default. Unless you are willing to search for how to turn it off and open the non-GUI about:config stuff and modify raw settings in a text table (with no descriptions or help text next to them) then you can't even turn it off. Also, the AI stuff takes up disk space.

abdullahkhalids 11mo ago
The default Right Click Menu in Firefox is - Icon bar: Back, Forward, Reload, Bookmark - Save Page As... - Select All - Take Screenshot - Ask An AI Chatbot - View Page Source - Inspect Accessibility Properties - Inspect I would bet that 99% of Firefox users have never ever even once clicked on any of the options besides the first one (icon bar).
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
petesergeant 11mo ago
> No. There is a lot more than that. There's not really though. The most annoying thing was when highlighting text a weird icon showed up. I clicked on it, and one of the most prominent buttons on it was "turn this shit off". So I did. This will probably be a bit useful for me when I want to copy web pages into Gemini for data extraction.

sfRattan 11mo ago

I've added a room to your home. Sometimes, there's a butler in there who seems absentminded and can only remember things up to a few thousand words. He once stacked all your dishes in the refrigerator and dumped all the food into the sink. Other times, there's a demon in there who seems hellbent on destroying the innocence of your children and ripping apart your family. He once gave your children snuff films and instructions to build a bomb. Just don't open the door if you don't like it... Some people are impossible to please.

Aeolun 11mo ago
No, no. > I've added a room to your home. They’ve added a room to their home. That they let you live in, for free. I’ll also mention that the room right next to it had all the contents you claim to take issue with. The problem here is that you shouldn’t leave children home alone, not that it has two potentially dangerous rooms. There’s several more such rooms in your house, and you wouldn’t let them cook or use your power tools by themselves either (not until they prove they can be trusted with that anyway).
- sfRattan 11mo ago
  Yes, this is why we routinely fill council homes (or public project housing) with amnesiac butlers to rearrange the residents' possessions, and also with demons for, um, reasons. Completely reasonable things to do. How else would we recoup our investment in the hugely expensive, unpredictable butler/demon spawning machines? >The problem here is that you shouldn’t leave children home alone, not that it has two potentially dangerous rooms. There’s several more such rooms in your house, and you wouldn’t let them cook or use your power tools by themselves either (not until they prove they can be trusted with that anyway). Depends on age, and the children in question. Also, if I have power tools it's because I chose them. And neither amnesiac butlers nor stochastic demons are necessary to not starve in the way that cooking food is, so the assessments of risk and basic good sense are not comparable.
- mvdtnz 11mo ago
  > They’ve added a room to their home. That they let you live in, for free. They don't let you stay there for free. They let you stay there because the world's biggest advertising company pays them to.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
NicuCalcea 11mo ago
> Just don't open the door if you don't like it... Some people are impossible to please. I mean... yeah? Do you use every feature of every piece of software you have installed?

throwaway1389z 11mo ago

Based on the article, you have to disable a whole heap of AI features, not a simple optional AI sidebar. This include things like using AI to assist with rendering/processing of PDF, looking at the flags. As a Firefox users, this seems very troubling to me.

Aeolun 11mo ago
That’s what the flags seem to have as a subject sure, but my firefox hasn’t spammed AI in my face even once, and I’ve looked at a lot of PDF’s, so clearly it’s not mandatory.
- throwaway1389z 11mo ago
  Did you check your network logs when opening PDFs? Why these flags are there to begin with?
sunaookami 11mo ago
>This include things like using AI to assist with rendering/processing of PDF, looking at the flags. Firefox is downloading a local model and using that to add alt-text to images inside PDFs which is great for accessibility. You can see all models that Firefox downloaded at about:addons. Every AI feature besides the (optional) sidebar (obviously) are local modals that run completely on-device.
- throwaway1389z 11mo ago
  This is bad. Very bad. AI models hallucinate and can make big mistakes. No browser should try to alter content without explicit user consent.

phyzome 11mo ago

And added Perplexity to the search engines, and did the tab grouping thing, and took away keyboard shortcut space for the sidebar...