Mozilla Names New CEO, Firefox To Evolve Into A "Modern AI Browser"
6mon 3d ago by lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/furzegulo in fuck_ai from www.phoronix.com
Mozilla Corporation has named its new CEO in replacing interim CEO Laura Chambers.
Anthony Enzor-DeMeo has been named the new CEO of Mozilla Corporation. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo was SVP of Firefox from 2004 to July 2005 and then from July until now was the GM of Firefox at Mozilla. He's written a public message today in his first day serving as the new chief executive for Mozilla.
"People want software that is fast, modern, but also honest about what it does. They want to understand what’s happening and to have real choices.
Mozilla and Firefox can be that choice.
Few companies share our strengths. People trust our brand. Firefox brings us global reach. Our teams know how to build reliable, independent software at scale, and our business model puts the user first.
As Mozilla moves forward, we will focus on becoming the trusted software company. This is not a slogan. It is a direction that guides how we build and how we grow. It means three things.
First: Every product we build must give people agency in how it works. Privacy, data use, and AI must be clear and understandable. Controls must be simple. AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off. People should know why a feature works the way it does and what value they get from it.
Second: our business model must align with trust. We will grow through transparent monetization that people recognize and value.
Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions."
AI is mentioned throughout Enzor-DeMeo's announcement post on the Mozilla Blog.
The Venn diagram of Firefox users who want an AI browser is zero.
Know your customer.
They want the new customers.
They would get new customers by being the clean browser without any of this ai bullshit. It was a free reason to use the browser. Let's hope forks are still viable, Mozilla cannot stop fucking up.
Evidence suggests they would trade every one of their current users for someone completely new, chosen at random. Current users of Firefox forks are probably even less desirable customers.
I use firefox and your mom thinks im desirable
Mozilla doesn't, though.
Your local AI model of their mom doesn't count
McDonalds want's new customers too, but that doesn't mean that they should announce that they're going to be focusing on expanding McDonalds into a sushi restaurant. Sure sushi is great, but it has an entirely different supply chain and preparation method than hamburgers. By pushing McSushi you both risk driving away driving away customers who only wanted a simple burger joint as well as risking introducing inefficiencies as your hamburger cooks and sushi chefs trip over each other in the kitchen.
I'm really, really upset that you put the image of McSushi into my head. Well done.
Read my followup comment. My money's on "they wouldn't mind, and might actually prefer, losing their all current customers."
Why not offer what nobody else can?
New customers would flock to edge Copilot or google chrome Gemini
Yeah, that's great Mozilla. Have fun with that. You just make sure that shit can be compiled out so I can use a forked project that's had all the stupid sanitized out of it.
Honestly none of this sounds good.
Firefox will grow into a suite of software? Why?
People just want Mozilla to make Firefox fast and modern (I.e. renders their content, follows web standards correctly, is secure)
AI and whatever else is just a distraction from the one product people want.
Do you know the saying, something like "traffic engineers are paid to build roads, they are not paid to not build roads"
In line with this, MBAs will do MBA things.
Firefox will grow into a suite of software? Why?
My guess is that this is just a branding push. Not so much "the firefox browser will start doing all sorts of non browser things" and more like "we're going to call our non-browser things firefox".
For example:
- Thunderbird -> Firefox Mail
- Mozilla VPN -> Firefox VPN
I thought Thunderbird was a community project nowadays.
It is, but sponsored by Mozilla, so some of their staff are probably still involved. And of course is open source, so they could just take the newest release and fork it back, if they'd wish.
Firefox will grow into a suite of software? Why? People just want Mozilla to make Firefox fast and modern
I thought that's what the direction a while ago was, as well. Mozilla would focus on the browser only, and make that really good. Now it's a complete 180 if we are to interpret this in the worst possible way.
You already lost my trust at "something you can turn off". This shit doesn't not need to be enabled by default in the first place.
I hope this doesn't screw over the forks like LibreWolf, IceCat, and Waterfox.
These two statements seem at odds:
AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.
And later:
It will evolve into a modern AI browser
Turn it off with the X in the top corner
Ladybird cannot get here soon enough
My very first thought.
Can it be the replacement inside Seamonkey too?
People trust our brand.
Unspoken rest of the idea, “Let’s take advantage of that.”
Mozilla continuing to take wrong turns.
While this is obviously not thrilling news to the fuck_ai crowd, it isn’t that bad either.
A new CEO is going to express a grand vision. In fact, we kind of hope they do lest they be weaselly caretakers who flip-flop on major initiatives.
And AI is pretty much every other word in any tech CEO’s statement right now. They get penalized if they don’t use it. I’m reading it here like, “All you big institutional donors, don’t fret we’re still in the goddamned boat with you fuckers” while at the same time saying “well turn it off if you want” - a kind of common sense statement sorely lacking in exactly this kind of statement.
So I give it a B- / C+. Not in danger yet, just needs improvement. A statement like this can’t really “win” anything so you want people to be sort of interested and kinda bored with it. Perfect.
I love your optimism. I don't share it, but I love it. I hope you're right.
We will develope a new API in partnership with AI providers that allows for tighter integration with our browser. To the point, a user can easily make it agentic if they want to. Or they can opt into the parts they want.
We are starting a new team that will work with such AI developers to ensure that the plugins they deploy both properly notify/request user permissions and only send the data they say they will.
That's the "Let's go AI!" while also being "We aren't sheep!" message.
Firefox should be the "user choice" browser
It will evolve into a modern AI browser
Are you serious right now bro?!! We don't want an AI Browser!! We want a browser that keeps us private, secure and safe and doesn't include any AI slop....
So you're saying you want a personalised AI driven gaming browser with advertisments tailored to your interests?
Not to be rude or anything but I suppose you should read my comment properly again
It was a joke.
If that's true then my bad...
He also said, AI must be a choice.
He said people should be able to turn it off. We want opt-in for trash features, not opt-out
Yeah but if it’s opt in it won’t look good on spreadsheets for people who didn’t opt out to say to investors look at how many people “use” this feature.
Fuuuucckk!
I've stuck with Mozilla for so long despite missing a lot of things I could've had, you know, for freedom.
But this is not the correct course anymore. This sounds like the same AI bullshit we get shoved down our throats everywhere.
I hope all those added AI features everyone pushes out now are implemented in a way so that the rest of the software still works after the AI bubble bursts.
Otherwise, we're being steered towards a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.
Business speak like always, which tbh normal people should just tune out. We'll see if firefox changes for the good or for the worse when it gets updated.
Give it a little more thought and I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion as most of us
Cool, cool... time to unistall Firefox then.
Take this Everstone, Mozilla.
Mindy could save us
This is not why I use firefox
I feel like we are just collectively on the cusp of discovering a new browser and walking away from Firefox.
Just the way we all discovered Firefox back in the day and said fuck any other browser.
Some people want AI? Fine, there are plugins for that. Just stop the bullshit and focus on
- Stability
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Compliance to standards
Add a nice and customizable GUI and plugin support and you are golden.
Are there things an "AI browser" can do that a normal browser with an AI plugin can't? Fine, then improve the plugin support. Stay in your lane.
I forgot to make a donation to Ladybird. Mozilla is fucked up beyond repair.
April fools! Haha... Wait... Guys?... It's April, right?.... Guys?.... Tell me it's FUCKING APRIL!
Ok get fucked Mozilla. Lynx it is...
But what does "modern AI browser" mean. Do I need tokens for web searches? Tokens for page loads? Am I only allowed to go to sites the browser decides based on my past history, also paid for with tokens?
Does Ladybird have a release date yet?
An alpha release for early adopters is supposedly coming in 2026. Fingers crossed!
Well fuck
Again, I’m a pro (local) LLM extremist as far as the Fediverse goes, but “automated” browsers should not be shipped by default like this.
It should be a separate tool or “mode” or extension you choose to activate temporarily, with very narrow scopes. Things like “turn this webpage dark and get rid of the autoplay videos” or “filter the AI slop from these results” or “put this messy shopping site into a table for me.” Not the 100,000th implementation of an “ask me anything!” Chatbot shoved in your face like Copilot.
And FYI, we already have them. FF doesn’t need to do it:
https://github.com/browseros-ai/BrowserOS
https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Perplexica
Honestly, “AI” feels like a disease infecting boards and high level executives. Or perhaps more accurately, the Orions Arm definition of a Meme:
https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47abccd6ee698
Memetic Demons are self-perpetuating patterns which use mental and social processes as their hardware and software, propagating ideas and belief systems with negative social and psychological effects.
Where - as standard totemic memes often work to attain the best for all sentients they come in contact with, or at least maintain an equilibrium (happiness vs. suffering, life vs. death), memetic demons seem to promote their own group or cause at the expense of all others. This may include any number of clever and insidious behaviors that either attack sentients external to the group or coerce the initiation of individuals reasoned to be "strong" in some regard.
Even for a company like Mozilla, once the idea is planted, it’s like they can’t think straight, and feel compelled to shove copilot into whatever their specialization is immediately.
Thank Satan for all those projects that de-trash Firefox for everyone. Not waterfox though, that dev has explicitly said he isn’t committed to personal privacy and such.
RIP
Its so over. Time to finally fork off.
I feel like they've been threatening to add AI to Firefox for a while now and still nothing has materialised (that I've noticed). As long as it can be disabled, I don't mind that much.
Ai icon in the left vertical bar in latest desktop versions
Oof on to the next one
I just switched to using Zen because of this. I need to get used to this new browser but if I can evade AI through this I gladly learn how another browser works.
So brave is compromised i thought. Chrome is ofc a no go. What do I use?
LibreWolf for now. They usually keep the worst of it at bay, at least.
Forks of Firefox.
Can I finally install web apps?
So, Mullvad or Vivaldi now?