Firefox now lets you choose your preferred AI chatbot in its Nightly builds | TechCrunch
As browsers continue to add AI features into their products, Mozilla is looking give users some choice in the matter. The company announced on Tuesday that it’s launching an opt-in experiment offering access to different AI services in Nightly, the experimental version of Firefox.
The company plans to improve the experience before bringing it to the beta and release versions of Firefox.
Users who have opted-in will get to choose their preferred AI service. Mozilla’s initial offerings include ChatGPT, Google Gemini, HuggingChat, and Le Chat Mistral. The company plans to continue adding AI services.
“Providing choice in AI services is important for many reasons,” Firefox senior vice president, Ian Carmichael, wrote in a blog post. “First, you should be able to choose the service that works best for you, and not be locked into a single provider. Second, all of these models are still being developed and improved. None are perfect, and each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Offering options gives people an opportunity to experiment with many services to find the one that’s most helpful in solving the problem they have.”
After choosing a preferred AI service, users will be able to ask the chatbot to summarize information on a webpage, simplify the language or test their knowledge on the information.
The idea behind the new offering is to allow users to trying out a few different chatbots and pick the one they like the most. Firefox notes that the offering is optional, so you don’t have to pick one at all.
The launch of the new experience comes as companies like Google and Microsoft have added AI chatbots to their browsers. Browser startups like Opera and DuckDuckGo have also added AI chatbots that can help users do things like summarize webpages and ask questions.
