TL;DR: Mozilla recently released AI controls for Firefox: a single control panel that lets people disable AI features in the browser or pick and choose which to leave on. On the surface, this sounds like a win for user choice in an era of AI-everything.
If we dig deeper, you can start to see that the kill switch isn’t the whole story. This feature acts like an accountability sink. By giving you an off-switch, Mozilla’s leadership shifts the ethical burden of AI onto the user - turning their design choices into your responsibility.
I swear people will never be happy no matter what.
No AI features? Get with the times man.
AI features? High treason.
Opt-out? Not good enough.
Opt-in? Nobody will use it.
Can’t please everyone I guess.
I have yet to spot anybody complaining about Firefox not having enough AI features, or hoping for opt-out instead of opt-in.
If most people don’t want it enough to opt in, then it belongs in an extension, not the base browser. Then it’s still there for the ones who actually do want it, but won’t bother anyone else.
Goomba fallacy
It’d be nice if they even pleased the open AI enthusiasts, but they can’t even manage that.