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- Hacker News
- I wonder if this is a generational thing of fresh young people that already cannot live without LLMs versus crusty old people that don’t want to require a super computer just to run a web browser that violates all their privacy.
To me this sounds like the point where people start looking at and developing alternatives to the browser/web.
- Why is it that Google is fixated on bolting on ever more junk and turning browsers into Homermobiles[0] instead of putting those vast resources towards fixing the numerous structural weaknesses in everything that browsers are already capable of? Why not focus on foundational things that will improve quality of life for everything on the web platform ranging from static blogs to e-commerce to cutting edge web apps?
Really, I just can’t understand it.
- The nice thing about open protocols is that we don't have to endorse or use one implementation over another, yet, somehow, the browser monopoly continues to be a standing dilemma.
There are nice projects, like ungoogled chromium, tor, and many more, but I find the biggest issue is that there isn't a voice out there for the average person and a project that connects with the masses.
I think another issue is that a lot of the uninformed users have a strong apathy for the causes and ways the message is delivered, they rather engage and connect with things that are "fun" and want less friction rather than freedom and control.
How do we solve this? How do we make the browser ours, by the people, and for the people?
Sorry, I'm just sad whenever I think of this.
by hmokiguess - The more I think about it, the more I think I align with Google's API design on this one.
The tight coupling between prompts and models is a real concern. I deal with that every day. However: if your solution to that is to support an API that enables tighter coupling between the model the user's browser has and the prompt that gets evaluated, you will inevitably and quickly enter the domain of "You need to use Chrome to use this site (because our prompts were only tested on Gemini)" or even worse "We don't recognize the AI model you're using (because the website was written in 2026 and the current year is 2030 and they never updated it)".
This is related to the terms of use concerns the Mozilla engineer has later; real concerns. But, if we want browsers to exist that don't require users to opt-in to the terms of use of a specific AI model (e.g. using a nice open source model), its beneficial to these browsers that they can't fingerprint for the Big Models.
Of course many sites will just do an isChrome()-like call anyway. Nothing to be done about that. But yeah I am generally non-supportive of changes that introduce more ways to fingerprint browsers. The upside of keeping the model anonymous outweighs the slight downside of (rarely) encountering weird prompt evaluation output because of a small difference in behavior between Gemini and, idk, Qwen.
by 827a - > Browsers and operating systems are increasingly expected to gain access to language models.[0]
Are they?
[0] https://github.com/webmachinelearning/prompt-api/blob/main/R...
by benterix - I am against this.
1) This will be a new source of fingerprinting information and this is difficult to fake to fool fingerprinting scripts, so it can be abused for "device verification". There should be no ability to "verify" a browser, and anyone should be able to emulate any browser. This is the most important point, I thought Google people are smart enough to see it.
2) LLMs use lot of memory and CPU time, for many users they would slow down their system significantly, and given current RAM prices, upgrades are very expensive. If the website relies on local model, it would work slow on cheap devices.
3) The API seems to be tailored for specific LLM like OpenAI.
4) This can be used to push competitors who do not have an AI model from the browser market - the sites would break because they will be made with expectation of having Google Gemini model and would not work with other models. For example, the sites would break in national browsers not having an AI model. There should be no "first-class" and "second-class" browsers.
The explainer claims that this would allow the user to process the data locally without sending it anywhere. But why does Google Gemini local model have "Prohobited Use Policy" then? Why should they bother about prompts and responses they never learn about?
While offline LLM access seems like a good idea, the website could use WebGPU for this without building LLM into the browser (or they could improve WebGPU for better handling ML models). Or everyone should use the same, open source, LLM.
by codedokode - ^ didnt realize who posted the opposition - this is Jake Archibald, a longtime googler on the Chrome team, now joining Mozilla and posting opposition to the Chrome API. no wonder the criticism is so well argued. most be a relief to not have to toe the party line on this one.by swyx
- The objections seem clear: tight-coupling of prompts to models, and model neutrality in the TOU.
From https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1213 :
"A personal example: I created a system prompt for creating announcements for a home automation system. The Gemini model I was using initially responded in a very US-American way, which didn't fit the British voice of my speaker. I told the model, via the system prompt, that the output was being spoken in a British voice, but the result was a bad US-American impersonation of British ("a'waight guv'nor apples and pears" etc etc), so I had to iterate further to 'tone it down' and speak actual British.
In this process, the system prompt becomes tailored to the model. Other models will have different quirks. Things added to the system prompt for one model may be an overcorrection for another."