one passage of note:
Where does all of this leave the Firefox browser. Surman argued that the organization is very judicious about rolling AI into the browser — but he also believes that AI will become part of everything Mozilla does. “We want to implement AI in a way that’s trustworthy and benefits people,” he said. Fakespot is one example of this, but the overall vision is larger. “I think that’s what you’ll see from us, over the course of the next year, is how do you use the browser as the thing that represents you and how do you build AI into the browser that’s basically on your side as you move through the internet?” He noted that an Edge-like chatbot in a sidebar could be one way of doing this, but he seems to be thinking more in terms of an assistant that helps you summarize articles and maybe notify you proactively. “I think you’ll see the browser evolve. In our case, that’s to be more protective of you and more helpful to you. I think it’s more that you use the predictive and synthesizing capabilities of those tools to make it easier and safer to move through the internet.”
Yep, exactly. Firefox does what it sets out to do – be a FOSS alternative to the ever-growing corporate browser market, providing user choice and useful features.
And I agree that AI as both a concept and implementation in its various types and forms will continue to be iterated upon and will continue to show numerous useful applications. I only hesitate that what is being called AI at this moment as being some kind of groundbreaking thing that changes the world, like corporations seem to be making it out as (hence the bandwagon to try to cash in on it).
It may very well change the world in the near future, but it’s not quite there yet. It is novel, and it is cool what ChatGPT and other applications can do, such as the example you gave, and that does have a very tangible quality to it. I feel that any fast-moving technological pace must be met with trust and with objective science every step of the way, and the likes of ChatGPT and other AI models have quite a ways to go – especially concerning trust.