Sunday, December 22, 2024

Firefox starts letting you use AI chatbots in the sidebar

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Like other browser makers, is looking to bring more AI features into . The organization’s latest effort is an experimental one for the Nightly build of the browser. Starting this week, you’ll be able to add , Google Gemini, HuggingChat or Le Chat Mistral to the sidebar. Highlight some text on the web and you can right click to ask your preferred chatbot to summarize the information, simplify the language or test your memory and knowledge of the excerpt.

Mozilla says any chatbot use is entirely optional and none of them are integrated into Firefox’s core functions. If you’d like to try one in Firefox, you’ll need the experimental version of the browser (note that Mozilla describes this as a “unstable testing and development platform,” so exercise caution). Go to Settings > Nightly Experiments and switch on the AI Chatbot Integration option, then pick a chatbot.

To add the chatbot to your sidebar permanently, select Customize toolbar after right clicking on the toolbar. After that, you should .

Mozilla is pitching this as a way for you to try out chatbots and see which one works best for you (or find out if you want to use one at all). “All of these models are still being developed and improved,” the organization . “None are perfect, and they’re each good at some things and not at others.” Mozilla added that it will refine the chatbot experience before bringing it to the beta and release builds of Firefox.

The organization is following several other browser makers in bringing chatbots to their products. Of course, and have brought Copilot and Gemini to Edge and Chrome, respectively. The likes of and have waded into these waters too.

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