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   Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 13:59:58 JST Anil Dash

   One of the top stories on Hacker News today was a post arguing that Mozilla shouldn't accommodate any usage of AI in Firefox because (understandably) people were mad at Big AI companies for all the horrible things they've done to users and the internet and society. But I think people are ignoring the reality that *hundreds of millions of users* are using LLMs today, and they need to have tools from platforms that will look out for their interests. https://www.anildash.com/2025/11/14/wanting-not-to-want-ai/

   • Embed this notice
     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 14:02:42 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     By all means, use Firefox and don't use AI. I don't give a damn about that, that's great. But think about this question deeply: What browser do you want your friends and family to use when they're using AI tools? We told people "social media from big companies is bad, get on Mastodon and Bluesky". And that works — provide useful alternatives. But if we simply say "stop using this thing you find useful, and I won't give you any alternatives", they'll just ignore us. And Big AI will win.

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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 14:19:03 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • FreediverX

     @freediverx "L take" is the last bastion of the person with no argument. What trust, exactly, have you lost? What's the _actual_ harm that you've suffered — not "I don't like the way this was communicated", but an actual harm that you have suffered, and in what way did you engage with taking agency to remedy that harm? What platform do you use now?

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     FreediverX (freediverx@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 14:19:04 JST FreediverX

     in reply to

     @anildash
     Why does anyone still trust Mozilla?

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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 18:34:06 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • Jeff Atwood

     @codinghorror I mean, I have sympathy for "Don't do this, and let's figure out what to do instead!" Because sometimes it's hard to solve problems and we have to band together to find alternatives. But "don't do this bad thing, dumbass, be smart like me" sure is guaranteed to fail.

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     Jeff Atwood (codinghorror@infosec.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 18:34:07 JST Jeff Atwood

     in reply to

     @anildash yes. do not say "don't use this" without providing an alternative.

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     Pax Ahimsa Gethen (funcrunch@me.dm)'s status on Monday, 17-Nov-2025 03:45:52 JST Pax Ahimsa Gethen

     in reply to

     @anildash - As one of the many people who posted in the Mozilla thread, I agree that the "nobody wants AI in Firefox" sentiment expressed by the majority is incorrect. Clearly *someone* wants it. *I* don't want it, and made an account just to say so, along with urging that any AI features be *fully opt-outable*.

     https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/building-ai-the-firefox-way-shaping-what-s-next-together/m-p/110210/highlight/true#M42497

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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 18-Nov-2025 04:32:00 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • ewhac

     @ewhac are you unaware that ChatGPT is in the top 10 websites in the United States, from *direct input* — meaning people typing in the website address themselves so that they can use it? That Sora has been at the top of the App Store chart for _weeks_? How did I lose you by talking about a factual thing? Is everyone on Mastodon in a complete bubble where they don't have access to reality, isolated from the actual internet?

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     ewhac (ewhac@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 18-Nov-2025 04:32:01 JST ewhac

     in reply to

     @anildash Your argument appears to be, "Well, everyone *else* is jumping off the Empire State Building, so..."

     You basically lost me in paragraph four, with, "Hundreds of millions of users are choosing to go to these websites, of their own volition, and engage with these tools."

     "Choosing?" Really? The same way people "choose" to use Edge, or "choose" to use Bing, or "choose" to use the Mob's protection services?

     What role do you see any browser having in protecting users against LLMs?

   • Embed this notice
     Pax Ahimsa Gethen (funcrunch@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 18-Nov-2025 04:36:29 JST Pax Ahimsa Gethen

     in reply to

     • ewhac

     Hey @anildash - speaking as a RL friend of @ewhac, maybe you shouldn't imitate the tactic of those you're critiquing by speaking of "everyone" on Mastodon when you're replying to individual critics. 🙂

   • Embed this notice
     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Saturday, 22-Nov-2025 14:54:44 JST Anil Dash

     • Rodrigo Ghedin

     @manualdousuario I liked your post, to be clear! I am glad you took it in the spirit I intended. I think there's definitely room for thoughtful disagreement here — this is a tough set of questions for us all to think through.