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Cake day: April 10th, 2025
  • thorhop@sopuli.xyztoFirefox@lemmy.ml•I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
    158·
    28 days ago

    I’ve actually flipped on this position - but before you pull out your pitchforks and torches, please listen to what I have to say.

    Do we want mass surveillance through SaaS? No. Do we want mass breach of copyright just because it’s a small holder and not some giant publisher - I.e “rules for thee” type vibe? Hell no. But do we throw the baby out with the bath water? Also: heck no. But let’s me underline a few facts.

    1. AI currently requires power greedy chips that also don’t utelize memory effectively enough
    2. Because of this it’s relegated to massive, globe heating infrastructure
    3. SaaS will always, always track you and harvest your data
    4. Said data will be used in marketing and psy-ops to manipulate you, your children and your community
    5. The more they track, the better their models become, which they’ll keep under lock and key
    6. More and more devices are coming with NPUs and TPUs on-chip
    7. That is the hardware has not caught up to the software yet

    See where I’m going with this?

    Add to the fact that people like their chatbots and can even learn to use them responsibly, but as long as they’re feeding the corpos, it’ll be used against them. Not only that, but in true silicon valley fashion, it’ll be monopolized.

    The libre movement exists to bring power back to the user by fighting these conditions. It’s also a very good idea to standardize things so that it’s not hidden behind a proprietary API or service.

    That’s why if Mozilla seeks to standardize locally run AI models by way of the browser, then that’s a good thing! Again; not if they’re feeding some SaaS.

    But it their goal and their implementation is to bring models to the general consumer so that they can seize the means of computing, then that’s a good thing!

    Again, if you’d rather just kick up dust and bemoan the idiocy and narcissistic nature of Silicon Valley, then you’ve already given them what they want - that they, and they alone, get to be the sole proprietaries of AI that is standardized. That’s like giving the average user over to a historically predatory ilk who’d rather build an autocracy than actually innovate.

    Mozilla can be the hero we need. They can actually focus on consumer hardware, to give people what they want WITHOUT mass tracking and data harvesting.

    That is if they want to. I’m not saying they’re not going to bend over, but they need the right kind of push back. They need to be told “local AI only - no SaaS” and then they can focus on creating web standards for local AI, effectively becoming the David to Silicon Valleys Goliath.

    I know this is an unpopular opinion and I know the Silicon Valley barons are a bunch of sociopaths with way too much money, but we can’t give them monopoly over this. That would be bad!! We need to give the power to the user, and that means standardization!

    Take it from an old curmudgeon. I’ve shook my fist at the cloud, I’ve read a ton of EULAs and I’ve opposed many predatory practices. But we need to understand that the user wants what the user wants. We can’t stick our heads in the sand and just repeat “AI bad” ad nauseum. We need to mobilize against the central giants.

    We need a local AI movement and Mozilla could be in the forefront of this, if it weren’t for the pushback and outright cynicism people trevall generally (and justifiably) have - but we can’t let these cretinous bastards hold all the AI cards.

    We need libre AI, and we need it now!

    Thank you for your consideration.