A Mozilla director of engineering:

https://mastodon.social/@stevemarshall/115740621035086166

> Are we building AI features? Yes, because lots of users are asking for them.

WHICH USERS STEVE

SHOW US THESE USERS

NOBODY ELSE AT MOZILLA SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO PRODUCE THEM

AND WE'VE BEEN ASKING A LOT

@davidgerard To be honest, if they say they receive that request from a lot of users I have no reason (nor do I care) to question it.

What I wonder is if they are also measuring how many they lose. I am biased but in my circle, I have seen literally everyone (I was the one last standing) switching to any other browser.

Don't know, there is a good bunch of directors over there, I'm trusting they are smarter than I am.

@nilace I think there is reason to question it, though, because every actual survey or request for comments they do is relentlessly negative

it's philosophically possible the lurkers support them in email, but it's negligible as a claim

@davidgerard I agree, I'm just making room for the possibility that they are researching in areas I have no idea about. Or countries that are not present in the same environments I am.

To be fair, it hasn't been without pain and it's been a process, but I don't care anymore.

I've seen people asking even for what I think is a fair middle ground in line with what used to be their... thing (opt-in instead of opt-out) with no answer.

Several weeks ago I just said goodbye.

@davidgerard Which, by the way, is the easy and comfortable thing to do. There are several services I use (particularly at work) that are just ignoring anything non-Chrome based.

Ethically and philosophically, I'm opposed to that but at the same time, the position I try to take cannot be aligned with AI so... well... not really worth it anymore.