That's unfair. Binary driver blobs are blackmail: "you bought the hardware, but parts of the laptop won't work unless you agree to run this mysterious bundle insecurely". Open weight is more like "here's a frozen brain you can thaw in a safe harness to do your bidding".
Unfortunately when the software is done, the product lifetime comes to a close soon after. Everything around the product changes and the software needs to change to keep up. Smart lightbulbs need apps to keep working and you get kicked out of app stores if you don't keep up with never-ending churn Apple and Google imposes on you.
The only way to run older games is to use emulators and other 3rd party effort, that also needs to be continually updated. When you claim that any piece of software is done and completed, you've only externalized the effort required to keep it useful.
I absolutely agree with your pushback against feature creep. That is unfortunately a reflection of internal corporation value system, while the successful open source projects often know where to draw the line.
Do an experiment. Take any single photograph and try to recreate any aspect of it with the AI. For example, try to match overall vibe of the color palette _exactly_ as it is on your photo. Or try to match the exact camera angle. Or exact composition. How many slot spins did it take? How many would it take to match multiple aspects of a single image?
Creativity involves an extra step, imagining something in your mind eye and then bringing it to life. Not settling for whatever comes out, but demanding more. As you learn any craft your ability to articulate increases beyond happy little accidents into intentional mastery. Not so much with AI.
The argument about killing creativity makes a lot of sense to me. Our brains are inherently lazy and always they seek paths of least resistance. That's the intelligence, basically, strategizing for best outcome with least effort. AI models require ~zero effort to map your prompt to a mere sliver of the entire possibility space. How can we then convince ourselves to spend weeks or years to try to reach some novel art styles, when they require so much manual labor and the attention muscle that we allowed to deteriorate away?
A browser with current definition obviously doesn't "need" AI. And we also know all too well how it's going to turn out - they will both use the AI to push ads onto us and also collect and sell our personal data.
However, a strong locally-executed AI would have potential to vastly improve our experience of web! So much work is done in browsers could be enhanced or automated with custom agents. You'd no longer need any browser extensions (which are privacy nightmare when the ownership secretly changes hands). Your agents could browse local shops for personalized gifts or discounts, you could set up very complex watches on classified ads. You could work around any lacking features of any website or a combination of several websites, to get exactly what you seek and to filter out anything that is noise to you. You would be able to seamlessly communicate with the Polish internet subculture, or with Gen Alpha, all without feeling the physical pain. With an AGI-level AI maybe even the Reddit could be made usable again.
Of course this is all assuming that the web doesn't adapt to become even more closed and hostile.
These are all the same sort of vaporware promises that come straight from every AI booster. These features will never exist and you should feel bad for pretending they might.
Maybe? I block popups, use privacy badger to deprive the usual suspects of my data, use one extension for finer control over video playback speed and one more to make reddit redirect back to old interface. I only use 7 of them because of security nightmare they are in general.
man not a single one of those examples sounds like something I'd need, or even need an AI agent to do.
I keep seeing the ads for AI browsers and the only thing I can think about is the complete and utter lack of a use case, and your post only solidifies that further.
not that I'm disagreeing with you per se, I'm sure some people have a workflow they can't automate easily and they need a more complicated and expensive puppateer.js to do it.
I just dont know what the heck I'd use it for.
I find it very hard to believe that either every site you interact with works exactly as you want it to work, or that you have the time/capacity to adjust them all with custom extensions. I get that there are downsides but you don't see any upsides?
I have extensions for the sites that need them and everything else is fine? occasionally I guess there'll be something in another language I want translated but I just copy paste the text into google translate or similar.
what sites out there are so unusable you'd need an LLM to fix them for use?
Right now all the sites I frequent are good enough, otherwise I'd drop them. I don't interact with Discord, Bluesky, X, Instagram at all, and I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of high quality interpersonal communication because I have low tolerance for their UX and their lack of respect for users.
Again, what can an LLM possibly do to help? Summarize the page I'm already reading? I don't want a summary, that's dumb. People who think their time is so precious they have to optimize a five minute read into a ten cent API call and one minute read of possibly wrong output are just silly. You aren't "freeing up time", you are selling your reality.
Buy stuff for me? Why? Buying shit online is so easy most people do it on the toilet. I've bought things on the internet while blackout drunk. I also have a particular view of "Value" that no LLM will ever replicate, and not only do I have no interest in giving someone else access to my checkbook, I certainly do not want to give it to a third party who could make money off that relationship.
How would I no longer need browser extensions? You're saying the LLM would reliably block ads and that functionality will be managed by the single human being who has reliably done that for decades like uBlock origin? How will LLMs replace my gesture based navigation that all these hyper-productivity focused fools don't even seem to know exists? It certainly won't replace my corporate required password manager.
>You would be able to seamlessly communicate with the Polish internet subculture, or with Gen Alpha, all without feeling the physical pain
Come on, get over yourself.
> With an AGI-level AI
So Mozilla, who isn't even allowed to spend $6 million on a CEO is somehow magically going to invent super AI that runs locally? Get a grip.
I also hate concept of summaries, as well as related concept of AI text inflation.
I'm also against any third party being involved here. I'm pointing out the potential of AI in the browser, but for me it has to be locally run or it is a no go.
My point is that browser plays a central role in our digital interactions. Extensions help with smoothing out the experience. LLMs could write those extensions, or serve as an agent to further make the online interactions more pleasant. I could see myself using it to either optimize my existing experience, or to vastly broaden the communication surface in directions that currently hold too much friction.
The rest was a joke, sorry if it made your day worse.
This is easy to fix with local storage. You reopen the tab and you're right where you left it. Unfortunately the companies see it as an opportunity to lock users in with cloud saving.
The allure is that the web is the most open, most stable and the most cross-device platform we have. Almost anything that was made for web still works today, with Flash and Java applets being the two big exceptions. Following the Lindy effect the self-contained web apps of today will still be operational far into the future.
Contrast this with Android's pathetic record of constantly breaking backward compatibility and restricting what software the users can even run on their devices.
How is the web stable? Any server can change the app you're working on without you being able to do anything. Tons of the old web is broken or gone.
Compare that to a win32 desktop app that will almost certainly keep working indefinitely without any changes. Plus you can use proper files for storage.
I was talking about web as technology stack. The tech is battle proven and capable. I had great success in getting some ancient web projects to run locally, less luck with Windows projects and even less with Linux sources.
You are right that by the nature of web the long term stability is not guaranteed. The ecosystem could do more to encourage decoupling and graceful degradation. About 95% of modern web is competing in sharing your data to even more "parties with legitimate interest".
Exactly. They have this text on patreon about page, just not on project readme. The rest is the copy/paste from there:
ACID DROP is a custom firmware designed for the LilyGO T-Deck, an ESP32 microcontroller popular among DIY enthusiasts. Unlike any existing firmware, Acid Drop is built from the ground up in C++, aiming to bring a wide range of features to the T-Deck. Currently in beta and under active development, we have plans to include IRC, SSH, ChatGPT, Gotify, Wardriving, and Meshtastic integration. With a focus on privacy and security, we're implementing features like WireGuard support, MAC address randomization, and secure boot.
We also have big plans and active development underway to make ACID DROP a powerful tool for pentesting. Planned features include creating Wi-Fi access points, executing evil port attacks, performing deauth attacks, and conducting BLE attacks. These tools are intended for testing on your own devices, giving you the ability to explore and understand security vulnerabilities in a controlled and ethical manner.
"When towing Aerocarts, planes instantly double or triple their payload capacity. This is because their capacity is limited by the takeoff / landing weight – not what they can safely pull through the air."
But later, on "How it works" section it is apparent that the main plane still has to tow the cart behind it when taking off. What's the trick that makes this work? Extra set of wings?
Yes, the wings of the glider provide lift that otherwise would not be present. The engines still need to produce more thrust to pull the glider but that's expected, the extra cargo doesn't come free.
That... kind of makes sense. But (the way I* see it) modern large aircraft aren't very overpowered (otherwise they would be less efficient), so their engine power is just a little bit above what's needed to get them into the air with a "usual" runway size in ~ the worst possible conditions ("hot & high"). Which means that they would need ~ double the runway length to take off with a glider in tow? So this works with the small aircraft they're currently testing with (they just have to use a longer runway), but if they want to extend it to larger cargo jets, they would risk exceeding the limitations of existing airport runways?
________
* - someone who has an interest in aviation, but no professional background or training therein
I didn't find any noise or whining in the post. The text mentions "effort to keep the apps updated" which is more than just updating the API number. You are frequently requested to adapt the app, the signing process, fill in the ever increasing compliance data. Every request for change is accompanied with a threat.
My app had no privacy concerns, didn't collect any data or even require internet access.
I was still expected to jump through all kinds of hoops every few months. Even after I gave up and my app was delisted I still get regular requests for new hoops they came up with with more threats that they would delist (even more?).
And yes, the app was moved to F-Droid which makes it invisible for just about 100% of Android users. I still think these kinds of posts serve as a good deterrent so others don't invest the effort in the Google Play store. The store is meant for corporations. If you are enthusiast or a non-profit considering the app a one-time investment, it will pester you and wear you down.
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