Mozilla lays off 60 people, wants to build AI into Firefox::Memo details layoffs, “strategic corrections,” and a desire for “trustworthy” AI.

        • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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          10 months ago

          i mean you can the people mostly doing AI arent buying Intel/AMD gpus.

          Unless you’re of the type who will only buy Nvidia, then you’re part of the problem.

          • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            New and used GPU prices are still high. Right as prices started to dip close to reasonable levels all the 4090s started getting snapped up drying up the high end of the market. And with the horribly overinflated MSRP of mid range cards they’ve stayed high instead of dropping to a level that’s actually reasonable for their performance. It’s trickle down economics, but in the worst way possible for the consumer.

          • MrPoopbutt@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            It is unfortunate but amd is just not competitive at the top tier of GPUs. You can make the argument that AMD cards are good enough, but DLSS is just magic that AMD cannot touch.

            • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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              10 months ago

              and it doesnt need to be, thats where most gpus arent sold numbers wise (well outside of the fact that the 7900 XT sells fairly well, due to pricing)

      • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Sorry to hear that. Can I interest you in some Taylor Swift gossip or the latest news story about what Elon pooped out of his mouth this morning?

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It should be noted that this isn’t quite the same AI integration that the likes of Google/Microsoft are working on.

    It’s trained using the data you authorise it to have, is run entirely locally when your browser is otherwise doing nothing, and doesn’t send information back to Mozilla.

    Personally my main gripes with AI are unethical sourcing of training data, and data collection. It seems like these won’t be problematic in this case.

    If AI integration is to happen (and we need to wait and see what the wider market outside of the Lemmy bubble wants), then this to me seems to be the best way to do it.

    Right now they’re using ‘AI’ for detecting fake reviews on sites, and to help power their offline translation.

    As for the 60 layoffs, that’s a shame and I hope these people find swift employment. They don’t appear to be people working on Firefox, though.

    • RonSijm@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      If AI integration is to happen […], then this to me seems to be the best way to do it.

      Well, to me the best way to do it would be for Mozilla to focus on being the best bare-bone, extendable browser.

      Then - if people want an AI in their browser - people should be able to install an AI extension that does these things. It’s a bit annoying they’re putting random stuff like Pocket, and now an AI in the core of the browser, instead of just making it an option to install extendable

      • SSUPII@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        You forget people DON’T want to personalize, and most Firefox users aren’t power ones. If a browser has a feature, they want it bundled.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        That sounds great for a power user that loves to research what extensions and such to have in their browser, and likes to customise their system to be just how they like it, but it doesn’t sound like something with the wide-market appeal that Mozilla needs if they’re to become a mainstream name again.

        Those people will just wonder why FF is missing basic functionality, then switch back to Chrome.

        • RonSijm@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          Well @ @TheGrandNagus and @SSUPII - I think a lot of Firefox users are power users. And a lot of the non-power Firefox users, like my friends and family, they’re only using Firefox because I recommended them to use it, and I installed all the appropriate extensions to optimize their browser experience.

          So if Firefox alienates the power users - who are left? I’m gonna move on to Waterfox or Librewolf, but they are even more next-level obscure browsers. My non-tech friends know about Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, so I can convince them to use one of those… But I kinda doubt I can get them to use Librewolf. If I tell them Firefox sucks now too, they’ll probably default to chrome

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            That’s not what I said at all. I said Firefox needs to have broad appeal and right now it doesn’t.

            That was very very clear from my comment.

            There’s no point in doubling down on only appealing to the tiny amount of people that by and large already use Firefox or a derivative.

  • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    What if they just instead spent that effort on actually improving the browser? They could bring back per-site useragents, add more media codecs, finally implement WebSerial API which Chrome has and is used more and more as everything moves into web browser environment, etc…

    • smolyeet@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not investing in AI is a good way to neuter your already non existent user base. Part of why edge took off even more is because generative ai was added. Regardless of our feelings about it, choosing to ignore what’s hot in tech would be foolish.

      The fakespot service is pretty useful when searching products on websites. It doesn’t have to be search results or code , but there are useful ways to invest in AI and maybe attract more users to your platform.

  • tabular@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    For software to be trustable the public needs be able to see what it does (not necessarily as an individual but collectively). Normally that means we need the source code but “AI” can mean a system like an artificial neural network - source code isn’t enough to understand what it is actually doing (even with the training data).

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I desire the browser to work as well as it did a decade ago. It worked perfectly all the time. Now I’m task closing it once every days because an entire window just goes blank white and never context updates. The CPU usage randomly spikes super high. It eats RAM uncontrollably and seemingly never releases what it should and holds on to what it doesn’t need forever.

    I don’t need AI. I need a good browser. And many of these issues are Chromium and why I switched from Chrome long ago (which I had switched to after FF broke all the extensions 20 years ago in the first place). This really shouldn’t be that hard.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I desire the browser to work as well as it did a decade ago. It worked perfectly all the time.

      You have on rose colored glasses. As a web developer, no browser ever worked, works, or will ever work perfectly all the time and it’s not even close nor has it ever been. We have been inching toward that for 20 years but we’ll never get there unfortunately as it would require web standards to freeze and infinite effort to achieve.

      Now I’m task closing it once every days because an entire window just goes blank white and never context updates.

      Weird. I leave FF open for days and weeks on end. Rarely ever have an issue. I don’t see this one in particular. Which OS are you running?

      It eats RAM uncontrollably and seemingly never releases what it should and holds on to what it doesn’t need forever.

      I agree FF is not efficient enough with RAM, but on the other hand I normally see it under 5 GB despite leaving dozens of tabs open all the time. I think they opt to keep things in RAM so switching tabs won’t feel sluggish. It’s a trade off. I don’t think much of the RAM usage is unintentional.

      This really shouldn’t be that hard.

      You obviously are not a programmer.

  • bonus_crab@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Or, just use AI to build better features and detect bugs and security issues.

    On a less pessimistic note, what AI features would actually be good in a browser? Maybe stuff like a console where you could ask

    “block all the ads on this page” or “download this video” or something

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    Well I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t accept any of my 3 applications last year. I didn’t even get an interview with them smh.

  • syd@lemy.lol
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    10 months ago

    Just make it built-in installed extension and let users to remove it. Or else I will not care browser monopoly and I’ll use Chromium derivatives.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Chromium derivatives. Which will undoubtedly be using non removable AI soon and also feed all your private data to Google directly without hesitation

      • syd@lemy.lol
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        10 months ago
        • derivatives that doesn’t uses AI.

        Maybe Firefox fork? IDK I just don’t like bloat.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You and me both. I can’t imagine FF won’t at least allow you to easily disable features like that.