Just want to raise up the design of this “AI kill switch” in Firefox, and say how much I like it: it’s a top-level preference, and the design and content are both *very* clear in communicating the different levels at which you’re making decisions.
I would *love* to see more product companies roll out something like this for their en-LLM’d features.
In before the replies to say:
1. yes, I wish it was opt-in;
2. yes, I’d much rather something like this didn’t need to be designed in the first place
Given all that, and until that happy day that “AI” platforms are rendered down into their component pieces and sold for scrap, I think this is a really, really good piece of design.
Attached: 1 image Good for #Firefox for finally putting in a "Please for the love of all that is holy, no AI anything ever" button into release 148. I am *very* curious to know the stats on uptake over time.
@beep #GitHub really took the biscuit—this is just wild and deceptive beyond any morale:
– They intentionally rolled out #Copilot for general "availability" on Christmas Eve(!) 2024, to be able to maliciously reply to all complaints with "sorry, our devs have gone home for the holidays. There's nothing, we can do. You gotta understand this. Leave them and their families their celebrations and recreational time"
1/
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/147437#discussioncomment-11870995
– Furthermore, they had put a disabled(!) "Disable" button into the #AI settings, so that they could claim "what are you looking for? It's right there!". After complaints filled their inboxes, the deviously cooked up a "hide" button, which, semantically is not the same as "disable" and refused to comment on that gaslighting attempt. Because, if they did, they would have had to admit that they had no intention of giving their users any choice whatsoever
2/
– On top of that, they censored criticism by marking all of it as spam so people wouldn't stumble upon opposition
But this is unfortunately not surprising at all as GitHub was demoted to a sub company of Copilot at #Microsoft and the then CEO said that people should "embrace AI or leave"
3/3
In before the replies to say: 1. yes, I wish it was opt-in; 2. yes, I’d much rather something like this didn’t need to be designed in the first place Given all that, and until that happy day that “AI” platforms are rendered down into their component pieces and sold for scrap, I think this is a really, really good piece of design.
Also, Default state should always be Off.
Switching it on should be a choice, not an assumption.
In before the replies to say: 1. yes, I wish it was opt-in; 2. yes, I’d much rather something like this didn’t need to be designed in the first place Given all that, and until that happy day that “AI” platforms are rendered down into their component pieces and sold for scrap, I think this is a really, really good piece of design.
Bugger, only the main post showed here. Apologies and kudos
In before the replies to say: 1. yes, I wish it was opt-in; 2. yes, I’d much rather something like this didn’t need to be designed in the first place Given all that, and until that happy day that “AI” platforms are rendered down into their component pieces and sold for scrap, I think this is a really, really good piece of design.
@beep yeah, I read that before I commented, and it reads like you think that makes the current situation ok (just not ideal), but it doesn’t come close.
(I’d dig up my old post about their undermining trust, but this app doesn’t let me search while composing)
@nice2meatu Firefox of the future, and Firefox of the paaaast...
@beep
Not pushing any future AI enhancements? Yeah, right. Just wait down a few versions.
"Oh right, we said we wouldn't, but all those people turned it off back a few years ago, and those AI features have improved so much by now, they just don't know what they're missing ! We're just going to give them a little nudge here to get them to enable it again."
See also:
- "This is a perpetual license to this software and all future versions"
- "... Oh right but THIS version is like a NEW product."
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