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Mistral and Mozilla are bringing open, private and multilingual AI to your web browser: a partnership to bring privacy, control and choice to people using AI to browse online. (mistral.ai)
submitted 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) by eicker@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] Willdrick@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

I don't really mind AI features where it makes sense. That being said, as someone else commented, this should have been a plugin.

I'll add on top of that: this should have been a plugin wholly developed by Mistral. Mozilla should stop spending time and money on side features and focus on the browser and its engine. It still is way slower than any chromium based browser, lacks features that have been standard on chromium for years (eg. HDR video playback) and it's way less efficient on battery than the competition.

Complaining about Firefox doing this and groveling on "I'm good, I'm on " is spitting upwards: even the most modified forks like Zen still rely on Mozilla's aging engine.

[-] Zarobi@aussie.zone -4 points 1 hour ago

IMO the browser wars have been lost, and Mozilla isn't a competent web browser anymore. 30% of sites I visit, straight up don't function at all on Firefox. They don't even satisfy their original mission statement of privacy focus.

I switched to Vivaldi and didn't look back. I don't want some LLM "assistant" scanning every webpage I visit.

[-] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 43 minutes ago

I’m sorry, I call bullshit.

I’ve been using Firefox for many many years, and the only sites that haven’t worked were M$ sites explicitly coded to break on Firefox, or were using a technology that Firefox simply doesn’t implement like web serial api, which is admittedly more than one, but it’s an extreme minority.

[-] PokerChips@programming.dev 2 points 9 minutes ago

Yeah I wondering if I was just lucky because I never have problems on Firefox or librewolf (which is Firefox).

Usually when I'm asked for computer help by friends or family, I can often save us both a lot of time by just asking, "you're using chrome again aren't you?" Or edge?

But sometimes in a great while Firefox is the "culprit" because it doesn't let abusive sites spy on them and collect so much telemetry.

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 13 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

It doesn't say anything about how this works. "No data retention" suggests that data is going to a server that's processing it but then not retaining it. That's bad, this type of feature should run entirely on the client.

Also, there's a proprietary AI model doing the work, even if inference is in the client. It says "open weight" but that's like letting people download a program as a compiled binary, the exact opposite of what FOSS is supposed to mean. It's an open/free model only if the training data and algorithms are also public, not just the trained weights.

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 hours ago

I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla Nov 2025.

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 hours ago

The translation feature has been very useful, though it's not an LLM. Still a neural network though. Saves me from going to google translate when browsing websites in e.g Russian (drive2.ru or whatever turns up in google search every so often when looking up obscure information on some cars and european oils that bitog forums don't see as much).

It entirely depends on what the AI does and if it's opt-in, opt-out, or forced on you. Opt-in local AI with sensible features is actually a good thing IMO.

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago

On principle I only want a pure FOSS program. I wouldn't want to use a binary-only browser even if it was a great browser with good privacy. I do use the built in Firefox translate feature but I've been wanting to get around to seeing where its model comes from. The Mistral stuff is completely proprietary except for the final weights as far as I can tell. I'd rather resist that since I want to be able to build and modify it myself.

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago

The Mistral stuff is completely proprietary except for the final weights as far as I can tell

Same as most open weight models. There are very few truly open source models, particularly if your definition requires distributing the whole training dataset.

I’d rather resist that since I want to be able to build and modify it myself.

I hope you've got some damn beefy hardware then. Even small models are a pain to train from scratch. You CAN still fine-tune it or train with LoRA.

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 hours ago

Same as most open weight models. There are very few truly open source models, particularly if your definition requires distributing the whole training dataset.

Yes exactly. Open weight is like a compiled binary. Misleading terminology made that sound desirable.

I hope you’ve got some damn beefy hardware then. Even small models are a pain to train from scratch. You CAN still fine-tune it or train with LoRA.

It's ok I can manage without AI.

[-] furzegulo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 52 points 13 hours ago

yeah no thanks. luckily librewolf strips this shit out.

[-] sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 hours ago

or you can just turn it off from settings

[-] Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 hours ago

Or they can stop trying to force it through their users throat and just accept that the biggest part of their users don't want it.

[-] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 29 points 13 hours ago

As long as this is opt-in (i.e. disabled by default), then sure. Otherwise, I'll just have to find a new browser.

[-] neclimdul@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

ive been seeing screenshots of the new vibe coded new tab replacement that are totally broken and the redesigned ui has overly rounded components that cover up text components and hard coded "ai" purple gradients that are nearly impossible to turn off with going into about:config...

So I have low expectations of this going well and seeing that second option in my future.

[-] eicker@lemmy.world 36 points 14 hours ago

Mozilla choosing Mistral for Firefox Smart Window feels like a rare AI partnership that actually fits the product. Privacy, zero data retention and multilingual models are a much better match for Firefox than turning the browser into another Big Tech AI funnel.

[-] Ankkuli@sh.itjust.works 15 points 12 hours ago

Why do almost all your comments sound like AI

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 11 points 12 hours ago

IMO nothing in that comment sounds particularly AI generated.

[-] SpaceBishop@piefed.zip 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Maybe not AI, but that specific comment does read like marketing copy. Then again, there is that list of three in there. That, plus just sounding like marketing, it could be AI. But I also concede that we, people that is, think in patterns of threes, so that's not a strictly an AI behavior, but I can see how someone could reach that conclusion.

[-] eicker@lemmy.world -1 points 9 hours ago

Thanks. 🖖

[-] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 12 points 12 hours ago

Because they are an AI simp

[-] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 15 points 13 hours ago

Mozilla can fuck right off with that forced ai horse shit.

Waterfox is the way.

[-] PokerChips@programming.dev 1 points 4 minutes ago

Try librewolf

[-] mintiefresh@piefed.ca 20 points 14 hours ago

As long as it's easy to turn off, I'm okay with it.

[-] Dultas@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

I'm not. I've donated to Mozilla before but I won't ever again if this is how they're choosing to spend their money.

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 33 points 14 hours ago

It’s still code bloat. A lot of these new “features” should have been plug-ins.

[-] jnsgc@social.vivaldi.net 17 points 14 hours ago

@reddig33 @mintiefresh I think a local translate is useful, better than sending it all to the web.

[-] MrSoup@lemmy.zip 20 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

This isn't about local translate, we already have it.

[-] jnsgc@social.vivaldi.net -5 points 13 hours ago

@MrSoup It doesn't matter, it is relevant because it uses a local AI so if you switch off all AI then you won't ever see it.

[-] warm@kbin.earth 18 points 13 hours ago

You should have to download it is the point. It shouldnt come in the base browser package. Its bloat.

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

Is it just open weights again?

this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
70 points (78.2% liked)

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