Notices by Stephen Farrugia (fasterandworse@hci.social)

Whenever I open firefox and it says it was updated I have to check and make sure the AI kill switch is still on.

That's what opt-out means.

> ...the AI kill switch ... has been flipped by just 1% of Firefox users to turn off AI completely. And it's being partially used by just 3% to turn off some AI features in the browser.

THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS OPT-OUT!

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/mozillas-ceo-knows-you-might-not-want-ai-in-firefox/

RE: https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/116636994180347584

Mark Zuckerberg is providing a great demo of anti-design here

> Anti-design is the design of use cases that appear to justify the existence of a product that was not designed to satisfy a purpose OR the design of use cases to distract from the lucrative use cases that are not good for PR

https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/115261236124516872

ios autocorrecting capitalisation of brand names feels abusive

RE: https://mas.to/@zzt/116613185928093652

Don't find yourself cheering a brand for criticising another brand. They are laundering their own reputation.

RE: https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/116586227741468965

You can't tell the world you use AI for *just this small thing* without contributing to the legitimacy of the whole AI industry.

You also can't use AI for *just this small thing* and think that you won't become the next *just this small thing*.

the boundaries that allow someone to embrace ai "as a tool" are all imaginary

As soon as you defend a product with "it isn't useless" you're doing the thing the maker wants you to do.

NOTHING is useless. It's the lowest bar for anything that exists, including a rock.

What you're looking for is "it is the best thing that exists for this concrete purpose" then we can talk.

RE: https://social.coop/@scottjenson/116352522288234148

shameful junk

this is commercial UX posturing 101 that amounts to the complaint that generative AI positivity does not get engagement on mastodon.

"community", "inclusivity", "bring more voices", "marginalised communities"

the problem?

Mastodon lacks an algorithmic feed that boosts AI positivity posts

@misty also note that Apple have dark-patterned this update below the fold that doesn't appear to be there

Never before has “I work in the tech industry” sounded so much like “I work in the tobacco industry”

Cory Doctorow's ultimate crooked point is that you're fucked if you don't embrace AI. Local models, whatever. He compares technologies that have been proven valuable with a product that is being predicted to be valuable.

It's a variation of the assumption that everyone who hates AI hasn't *tried* it. If only they would give it a chance, they'd not be left behind.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/116006718073303488

best not find yourself saying "people have different definitions of opt-in"

RE: https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/116002119945073671

For all us Web Developers there is the WebExtensions API detailed here (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions) on the Mozilla Developer Network made by Mozilla, but for Mozilla we have this "AI Controls" mess, the most incredible display of "what is consent...really?"

in case it's not clear, Mozilla could have pleased *everyone* by making all this stuff into browser extensions. They've been hammered with feedback about this but have not addressed it.

Incredible

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@duke_of_germany/115853330852766984

@firefoxwebdevs it would be compelling to hear someone at Mozilla recognise that you don't have this "kill switch" yet but you're already facing the problem of what to kill.

It would also be compelling to hear someone at Mozilla recognise that there is a browser and there are browser extensions and that "translation" has nothing to do with the operating system of a web browser.

RE: https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/115731120513478963

Firefox's killer feature is that it's not chromium. That's the pull. Nothing to do with tab grouping or UI design.

When your userbase is made of people who don't want bullshit, you are taking a risk with every new feature, especially the ultimate bullshit feature of AI

The World Is Not A Desktop - Mark Weiser

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/174800.174801

Technically, we're all pre-seed founders.

Never let them take that away.