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AI, creating more problems than it solves?

Apparently Firefox is adding AI to its browser.

Excuse me while I yawn and then shudder a little.

I have been a user of Firefox ever since its origins as Netscape back in the halcion days of the 1990s.

Not for me, the raft of other browsers that all claimed to be better, faster, safer and prettier. I've just stuck with the OG and it has served me pretty well over the decades.

While Internet Explorer users were busy fending off attacks made via a huge list of vulnerabilities in the early 2000s and while others grappled with all manner of other handicaps related to their browser choice, Netscape, aka Navigator, aka Communicator, aka Firefox has simply done the job in a largely reliable and predictable manner.

Is it the fastest browser on the market today? No. Is it the most secure? No. Is it the most memory-efficient? No. However, it does feel like a comfortable pair of shoes that fit well and do the job asked of them

But AI? I'm not so sure about that.

Why am I not so sure about integrating AI into my browser?

Well AI is a complex thing that is not well understood by many people and that means there's plenty of room for evil little sods to leverage it to their advantage.

We're already seeing massive levels of fraud being carried out using AI-generated material and hackers are even using AI to discover security vulnerabilities in popular software that can then be exploited for financial gain.

I know from experience (as related in a previous column) that it's very easy to dupe AI chatbots into doing crazy stuff or even crashing completely so I do fear that adding this tech to a web browser is increasing its vulnerability to attack enormously.

When you browse the web, your web-browser comes under constant attack from sites that would seek to poke holes in its defenses so as to scoop up your session cookies, passwords or other valuable stuff. It makes no sense to me that you would massively increase the scope of the risk by adding a bunch of stuff that is so easily misdirected.

If you don't believe me, read this sobering article that demonstrates the problem.

One of the reasons I've stuck with FireFox over the decades is that I want a browser that simply does the basics and does them well. To my mind, Mozilla has already dropped the ball on several occasions by adding too much unnecessary fluff and if they decide to jump onboard the AI bandwagon as reported by The Register then I'm likely going to (finally) jump ship to something else.

Yeah, sure, you *can* turn off the AI summary function -- or can you? Really? Are you sure?

Perhaps you can turn off the summary results but will AI still be chugging away in the background, exposing you to all manner of vulnerabilities that such activity might produce?

AI in my browser? I don't want it, I don't need it and I won't have it.

My regular "chats" with AI chatbots and the stuff I read online convince me that the risk is simply not worth the reward at this stage of events.

Carpe Diem folks!

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