Dear Mozilla, Please Stop

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I’m not one of these cynics who is 100% dead-set against Machine Learning. It has some cool capabilities that are hard–if not impossible–to replicate in traditional software. But there’s a RIGHT WAY and a WRONG WAY to implement AI. Mozilla’s going about it in DECIDEDLY the wrong way.

Read more:
❯ Machine learning can be cool: https://gardinerbryant.com/ai-is-a-scam-but-dont-let-that-spoil-machine-learning/
❯ Mozilla’s doing it wrong: https://gardinerbryant.com/mozilla-ai-in-the-browser-is-disgusting-please-stop/

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00:00 Introduction
02:34 I’m an AI skeptic
06:14 There’s real benefit to Machine Learning
07:20 A caveat on “Ethical” AI and Machine Learning models
07:50 What can Machine Learning actually do?
08:17 Automatic audio transcription
09:33 DaVinci Resolve’s AI Voice Isolation
11:34 Affinity’s Object Selection tool
12:52 But what about AI tools in free software?
14:13 The Firefox-sized elephant in the room
21:04 AI isn’t intelligent
22:46 AI Chatbots are theft
24:18 AI is a massive privacy concern
25:12 There’s ZERO value proposition
25:51 Agentic browsers empower you to commit fraud
28:28 The most concerning thing about all this
30:02 Mozilla has no clothes
32:53 The AI Bubble is really a Death Spiral
35:43 The Existential Threat to Mozilla

About Gardiner Bryant: A native Maine resident, Gardiner (yes, that’s his first name) is an enthusiastic Linux evangelist, a believer in the efficacy and superiority of the Free and Open Source way, and President of Heavy Element. Heavy Element offers web design, media production, and YouTube consulting services to individuals and companies in Maine and beyond.

https://heavyelement.com

Gardiner Bryant is a privacy advocate and public speaker on the topic. Learn more about his speaking series and schedule an engagement at your institution at https://gardinerbryant.com

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36:22:

This is the real existential threat to Mozilla: instead of reclaiming their position as an internet insurgency fighting for a free and open source web, they’re bandwagoning with the barons of enshitification.

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Comments in Gardiner Bryant@subscribeto.me

He/Him

@gbryant you say that nobe of the tech is new and that it all existed for decades, but why dodn't the transformers since the 2017 Google paper to be major breakthrough?
Is chatGPT really the same underlying tech as autocorrect?

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Also: LLMS ARE NOT AI. 

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Set up Anubis on your website just in case.

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He/Him

@gbryant

Well said! 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

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This has to be one of your best videos IMHO:). You seem pissed, and that's totally justified as you lay out in the video. I especially appreciated how you backed up your argument with factoids to make sure that people less familiar with the topic could understand. Great work, and keep fighting the good fight:)

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@gbryant The saddest part is that Mozilla had already done the right thing in the past regarding opt-in to download local models:
That's how translations work in Firefox (at least before the new "ask the chatbot" options).

(And I'm skipping the even better example of LanguageTools: a separate proof-reading *add-on* that can be pointed to talk to a local install of the Java server)
...

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@gbryant ...
Also in addition to the "jumping in on the bandwagon" and "easy buzzword to attract money" reasons, another thing that Mozilla has likely though about is that a significant part of people nowaday to use, e.g., ChatGPT.

Note though I am not saying that shoving it right in the browser is the best way to server Firefox' user base. Just that Mozilla tried to take into account a frequent usage pattern in the general population.
...

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@gbryant ...

Locally run models like on Jolla's SailfishOS powered "Mind2" computer would have also been better as chatbot options.
Though, even if they are way into "diminishing return" territory, the giant lake-boiling online corporate model are marginally better the local models, and that might contribute to user not being interested in running locally and might have contributed to Mozilla's choices.

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Surprise me.

@gbryant

As I tooted over at social.tchncs.de/@Blort/115762 we REALLY need someone to make a decent attempt at a browser using Servo, even if it's not fully functional to begin with.

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