Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser that has spent two decades battling tech giants over control of the internet, is now turning its attention to AI and deploying roughly $1.4 billion in reserves to fund what president Mark Surman calls a "rebel alliance" of startups focused on AI safety, transparency and governance. The organization released a report Tuesday outlining its strategy to counter the growing dominance of OpenAI and Anthropic, which have raised more than $60 billion and $30 billion respectively from investors and now command valuations of $500 billion and $350 billion. Mozilla Ventures, a fund launched in 2022 with an initial $35 million commitment, has invested in more than 55 companies to date and is exploring raising additional capital. Surman, who runs the organization from a farm outside Toronto, acknowledged the financial mismatch but said Mozilla is playing the long game. By 2028, he wants Mozilla to be funding a "mainstream" open-source AI ecosystem for developers. The effort faces headwinds from the Trump administration, which has criticized AI safety efforts as "woke AI" and signed an executive order establishing a task force to challenge state AI regulations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

L’écosystème des navigateurs web est en pleine mutation. La raison ? L’avènement de navigateurs IA et, plus généralement, l’intégration de solutions LLM dans de nombreux navigateurs historiques.​ Le dernier en date à avoir amorcé cette transition est Firefox. Ce virage stratégique n’a pas manqué de provoquer la colère de nombreux utilisateurs, mais il a aussi donné des idées à Waterfox, un de ses dérivés populaires.​

Mozilla a un nouveau PDG et une nouvelle ambition. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo veut transformer le célèbre navigateur libre en un « écosystème » propulsé par l'intelligence artificielle. Une orientation stratégique qui, à peine annoncée, provoque une levée de boucliers chez les fidèles.

Purin vraiment y'a des baffes qui se perdent. Le nouveau patron de Mozilla veut faire de Firefox un navigateur à fond IA. 🤬

EDIT: Article en français : https://www.lesnumeriques.com/appli-logiciel/un-navigateur-ia-moderne-malgre-les-reactions-hostiles-firefox-officialise-son-passage-a-l-ia-n248266.html

À noter qu'ils ont annoncé un "kill switch" pour couper totalement les fonctionnalités d'IA dans Firefox. Donc c'est pas si mal.
https://next.ink/brief_article/firefox-aura-un-kill-switch-pour-ses-fonctions-ia/
(Permalink)

Mozilla has named Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its new chief executive, promoting the executive who has spent the past year leading the Firefox browser team and who now plans to make AI central to the company's future. Enzor-DeMeo announced on Tuesday that an "AI Mode" is coming to Firefox next year. The feature will let users choose from multiple AI models rather than being locked into a single provider. Some options will be open-source models, others will be private "Mozilla-hosted cloud options," and the company also plans to integrate models from major AI companies. Mozilla itself will not train its own large language model. "We're not incentivized to push one model or the other," Enzor-DeMeo told The Verge. Firefox currently has about 200 million monthly users, a fraction of Chrome's roughly 4 billion, though Enzor-DeMeo insists mobile usage is growing at a decent clip. He takes over from interim CEO Laura Chambers, who led the company through a major antitrust case and what Mozilla describes as "double-digit mobile growth" in Firefox. Chambers is returning to the Mozilla board of directors. The new CEO has outlined three priorities: ensuring all products give users control over AI features including the ability to turn them off, building a business model around transparent monetization, and expanding Firefox into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Mozilla VPN integration is planned for the browser next year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.