Day later: Firefox adds more AI features enabled by default

Is "stunts" the new "slams"?

I'm too old to keep up on current popular terminology

Previously I noticed that Firefox user count had stopped declining for the first time in many years. Only later did I realise that it was probably due to all the fuss about Chrome dropping MV2, not anything Mozilla themselves had done. Hopefully this will keep the trend line going up a little further. Who knows, maybe Mozilla will miraculously come to its senses before it resumes the long slow decline.

It's throwing me off because I thought 'stunts on' died off years ago

Firefox doing well at something? Guess it's time for Firefox fans to imagine them eventually doing something else that they don't like so they can gripe about that instead.

I mean... they are kind of pushing AI right now, probably to soak some of that VC money floating around, but there is also a toggle in the settings thats basically "dont ever talk to me about AI again".

They may also be pushing AI features because there are people who actually do want to use them. "Nobody wants this" is a refrain most commonly spoken inside social bubbles.

As you say, nobody has to use these features if they don't want to. If they feel icky even knowing that there's a configuration option there then there are plenty of Firefox forks out there that don't even have that. It's so tiresome seeing these complaints being endlessly inserted into unrelated discussions like this.

By giving you an off-switch, Mozilla’s leadership shifts the ethical burden of AI onto the user - turning their design choices into your responsibility.

Oh no, giving the user the choice of which features they want to use! How vile!

Use one of the forks that does this by default if you really can't stand having the choice yourself. Or is choosing a fork also "making it your responsibility" and therefore also something that's bad?

@FaceDeer @nemeski@mander.xyz @warm @Zorque I am.

Facedeer is just an AI evangelist troll. I guess one of his goals is to try convincing people of some "silent majority" somewhere.

There's no point in arguing with him on this

Google cutting funding in 3... 2...

FWIW I think you're doing the right thing in pressuring Mozilla to have better defaults and shed their bloat. Especially because some people who have abandoned Firefox have also felt compelled to leave their forks because they unfortunately resemble hobbyist projects:

I only briefly considered the Firefox forks. On LibreWolf specifically, I don't think I trust that they will be around. It seems they have one primary maintainer, they don't accept donations, and the main person could leave tomorrow. That's not just my read, that's their stated position.

I really like what LibreWolf is and does, but it's understandable people would reach this conclusion.

Mozilla is already bending the knee to Google as they intentionally prevent their upcoming iOS ad blocker from functioning on Google or any search site.

Where are you looking? I haven't seen the same rise in users you have... By Mozilla's own reports , it looks like Firefox is holding steady, not falling but not really rising either.

Hard agree that Mozilla can be at its best by trying to hold onto (read: not alienate) its userbase and avoid jumping onto trends. Don't mess with perfection.

The monthly active users count there is not down compared to last year at this time, although it's not up by as much as even the small amount that it was a couple months ago. Holding steady is a departure from the trend, the best it's done in a long time. I'm just going by memory when it comes to years before 2021 — it's too bad they don't show older data there.

I don't care what hate you have for Firefox. It will always be better than any Chrome based browser. I feel 100x more secure using Firefox than anything else. Librewolf is even better.

"stunt" is 90s/early 2000s slang.

I must not have been in the right circles, then.

I suppose it helps to actually be in circles... but still.

these 1681 kids

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stunt

Yes, I have heard of the term stunt before. Shockingly.

Just not in this context, which is not in fact mentioned in the link you provided.

As a non-native english speaker, these headlines sometime hurt my brain.

I don’t reckon it’s popular. We’ve known for years that “slams” is a sign of a disappointing article, but maybe we’re all actually starting to internalise it now, so now we need to mix up the headlines to keep engagement.