Look around. There are buses driving alongside cars on the road. Some of your packages are delivered by private couriers, others are delivered by the national postal service. You can flip the channel on your TV back and forth between public broadcasting and commercial networks. And when you access the internet, you can choose between a commercial or nonprofit-backed web browser.

Private and public initiatives have existed side by side for a long time. While private innovation often pushes the frontier of what’s possible, public alternatives can make those innovations more accessible and beneficial for everyone. These parallel products and services give people more choices, create market pressure on each other to be more trustworthy and innovative, distribute power across more people and organizations, and create more resilient and healthier economies.

So, where are the public alternatives for AI? They are starting to emerge, with some governments subsidizing access to computational resources, and nonprofit AI labs collectively putting nearly $1 billion into open source AI research and models. These are important steps forward, but they are not enough to create true public alternatives to the results of the hundreds of billions of dollars going into private AI. This status quo means some critical projects — such as using AI to detect illegal mining operations, facilitate deliberative democracy, and match cancer patients to clinical trials — remain under-resourced relative to their potential societal value. In parallel, Big Tech is ramping up efforts to push policymakers to support private AI infrastructure, which could further cement the dominance of just a few companies in creating the future of AI.

We can’t just rely on a few companies to build everything our society needs from AI — and we can’t afford the risk that they won’t. 

Today, we are unveiling a bold vision with a sweeping action plan for Public AI. Mozilla is calling for a robust ecosystem of initiatives that promote public goods, public orientation, and public use throughout every step of AI development and deployment. It’s not enough for some AI resources to be more accessible, or for companies to support a few token “AI for good” side projects. We need a whole parallel AI ecosystem that can run on non-commercial incentives, where openness enables projects to build on top of each other, and where the total scope of these initiatives is a meaningful counterweight to the private AI ecosystem. 

We are calling on everyone to help shape Public AI. Developers should create open source AI models and tools that are competitive with private AI initiatives; policymakers should support the data, tools and workforce development to make AI truly usable for public interest applications; and the public should support the products and services that emerge from Public AI by contributing data, engagement and support to this ecosystem.

At Mozilla, we’re committed to doing our part by building key parts of the Public AI ecosystem. We will help build public alternatives for the data needed in AI development by doubling down on our Common Voice platform, further expanding access to multilingual voice data to train AI models that represent the diversity of languages around the world. We will invest in open source AI via Mozilla.ai, Mozilla Ventures and Mozilla Builders, which supports the development of tools like llamafile that are making it easier to run AI models locally rather than needing to use commercial cloud providers. And we will continue to support the broader AI accountability ecosystem that is vital for Public AI, continuing to steer our fellowships and data programs toward enabling more people to steer and co-create AI.

We believe this work can only be done in partnership with developers, policymakers, academics, civil society, companies and the public at large. That’s why we’ll also continue making grants through the Mozilla Technology Fund to support open-source AI projects that are building Public AI applications, and we’ll also fund more research about the impacts of Public AI. We’ll keep bringing together stakeholders and experts to explore how to make Public AI components more accessible and ethical. We will also keep working with policymakers to make the case for Public AI, starting with a workshop we are co-hosting with our partners this week in Washington D.C., and continuing with our engagement on this topic at next year’s AI Action Summit in Paris, France.

This is a core part of Mozilla’s broader work to empower everyone and ever community to shape, enjoy and trust AI. Earlier this year, we released a paper, Accelerating Progress Toward Trustworthy AI, that outlined our broader vision on AI, and invited public comment. When we publish our final Trustworthy AI paper in the coming months, Public AI will be named as an explicit pillar in our overall strategy for AI.

If we get this right, we can create an AI ecosystem that expands opportunity for everyone. Come join us in making this a reality.

The post Creating a public counterpoint for AI appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Total Cookie Protection

Instead of letting cookies follow you across different websites and gather details about your browsing habits, Total Cookie Protection locks them into their own “cookie jar” for each site. This way, YouTube can’t peek at what you’re up to on Etsy, or any other website for that matter. 

Fingerprinting protection

Cookies and trackers are one thing, but fingerprinting takes it up a notch. Some websites gather details like your device settings, screen resolution and even your installed fonts to create a unique “fingerprint” they can use to track you across the web. Firefox blocks these known fingerprinters, making it much harder for sites to build a profile based on your setup. 

DNS over HTTPS

When you enter a web address, your browser sends a request to a server to look up the IP address for that site. These requests are typically sent in plain text, meaning someone – like your internet service provider or someone on the same public Wi-Fi – can intercept and see the website you’re trying to access. Firefox uses DNS over HTTPs to encrypt this request, preventing others from seeing the websites you’re visiting so those snoopers can’t block or track your requests.

HTTPS-Only mode

While DNS over HTTPS protects the request Firefox makes to find a website, HTTPS-Only mode secures the data (like passwords or payment details) you send to and receive from that site. Believe it or not, even today, not every site is set up to encrypt your website traffic. If a site doesn’t support HTTPS, Firefox will alert you and let you decide whether to continue or stay protected.

Phishing and malware protection

Not all websites are as harmless as they seem. Firefox checks the sites you visit against regularly updated lists of reported phishing, malware and unwanted software. If you’re about to visit a risky site or download a suspicious file, Firefox will warn you – helping you avoid potential trouble.  

Alerts for breached websites

Firefox’s website breach alert feature is a built-in security tool that notifies you if your saved passwords have been compromised in a breach. You’ll know right away if it’s time to update a password, helping you stay ahead of potential threats and keep your accounts secure. 

Firefox Multi-Account Containers

Multi-Account Containers is an extension that helps keep your online life secure and organized. You can easily manage business, family and personal accounts — like logging into work emails, checking personal social media and keeping up with family updates — all in separate tabs. Using containers keeps cookies and sessions isolated so your activities stay neatly compartmentalized.

Firefox Relay

Relay is a Firefox extension that lets you create email masks to protect your real email address. Once installed it allows you to generate email masks directly from forms when signing up for new accounts and services. Now, you get to decide if and when you get newsletters and offers without ever worrying that your real email is being leaked or shared without your permission.

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The post Take control of your browsing with Firefox’s privacy and security features appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Calling on AI and machine learning engineers passionate about open source and local AI, nearly 200 applicants from 44 countries stepped up to push the boundaries of what’s possible with running models directly on personal devices instead of relying on the cloud. After a rigorous review process, we’re thrilled to announce the 14 groundbreaking projects that made the cut, each earning up to $100,000 in funding and mentorship from Mozilla.

“When we first opened applications, we weren’t sure how many would dive in, given that local AI is still a relatively new concept. But the open-source community proved its strength and potential beyond our expectations,” said Liv Erickson, who leads ecosystem development at Mozilla. “These 14 projects stood out with their creativity, potential impact on the local AI tech stack, and alignment with Mozilla’s values.”

Accelerating AI with purpose

When you think “accelerator,” you might picture a fast-paced, high-stakes startup scene. That works for some, but we’re doing it the Mozilla way – focusing on what really matters: keeping the internet open and accessible to all.

We’ve tailored the Mozilla Builders Accelerator to support a diverse group of innovators – from students with groundbreaking ideas to seasoned CTOs with high-potential side projects. This approach lets us zero in on the best ideas, while still offering the structure, funding, mentorship and demo day you’d expect from an accelerator.

Meet Mozilla Builders Accelerator’s first cohort

During the review process, three key categories stood out: application and training/fine-tuning, developer tools and infrastructure enhancement, and expressive media and data visualization projects. Here’s a breakdown of categories and projects.

Application and training/fine-tuning

Projects that focus on improving and customizing AI models for better performance and real-world use.

• Instant pronunciation feedback with a language coach from Koel Labs – Using movie scenes to improve pronunciation in real-time, Koel Labs offers grammar feedback through an AI-powered language coach. The app ensures privacy and accessibility all while running locally.
• A Large Language Model (LLM) for Swahili by Sartify – Designed to provide general and domain-specific AI capabilities for Swahili-speaking regions, Sartify’s Swahili-LLM supports multilingual interactions in East Africa. The goal is to make AI more accessible and drive inspiration within these communities to engage in AI research and development.

• Making scientific data accessible to all with ScholasticAI from Pleias – Helping users access high-quality scientific data in multiple languages, ScholasticAI uses open-source AI models to process open licensed scientific documents. Top-tier research is more accessible all while ensuring privacy and reducing the need for remote servers.
• Simplifying large language model tools from Transformer Lab – Making tasks like training, fine-tuning, and evaluating LLMs simple and accessible, Transformer Lab helps developers and researchers get started quickly. It builds and manages large language models (LLMs) on Windows, MacOS, and Linux, thus lowering the barrier to entry for working with LLMs. It supports various frameworks and offers powerful features within a single application.

Developer tools and infrastructure enhancement

Tools and systems that make software development easier and more powerful, helping developers build and manage their projects more effectively.

• Curating AI/ML models for drug discovery research in low- and middle-income countries from Ersilia Model Hub – Focusing on critical diseases, Ersilia Model Hub provides AI/ML tools that operate locally, ensuring access even in areas with poor internet connectivity. Their goal is to improve researcher access for drug discovery in the Global South.
• Building agents to make software deployment easier from Foyle – Using a notebook format to simplify automation and operations tasks across workflows, Foyle is an AI copilot that learns from continuous feedback.
• Enhancing control and understanding of AI models from K Sadov – Feature Retrieval, Editing, and Understanding for Developers (FREUD) helps developers better control and understand AI model outputs by focusing on the interpretability of speech-to-text models like Whisper. Using sparse autoencoders (SAE) to decompose model features, the project will explore latent capabilities in Whisper models, such as speaker emotion detection and diarization. FREUD will also provide user-friendly tools and an interface to navigate and analyze these features.

• PDF data extraction from Marker – Using advanced OCR for layout, text, and math detection, Marker converts PDFs to Markdown all running locally. This ensures high-quality data extraction without needing constant internet access. Paired with companion tools Surya and Texify, Marker helps create robust training datasets and improves data processing efficiency.
• Building a cutting-edge distributed ML framework with Elixir from Nx – Creating a scalable, distributed machine learning framework that outperforms current solutions, the Nx project leverages Elixir’s unique strengths in multitasking and fault-tolerance. By automatically spreading tasks across multiple devices, Nx aims to deliver a more scalable and efficient solution.
• Community collaboration tools from Open WebUI – Open WebUI is an easy-to-use interface that lets you run powerful GPT-like AI models  without an internet connection. Originally designed to enhance AI tools, it has become a popular platform with over 3 million downloads. Now, the focus is on building a community where users can share data and insights to improve AI models together.
• Editable copilot capabilities from Theia AI IDE – Offering full transparency, customizable prompts, and the freedom to choose and host their own language models, Theia AI IDE extends the existing Theia editor to provide a suite of copilot options and agents for developers to customize their tools and workflows with on-device or cloud AI solutions. 

Expressive media and data visualization

Creative projects that find new ways to display data and media, making information easier to understand and more engaging.

• Data clustering and visualization from Latent Scope – Using advanced AI to categorize, cluster, and explore large, unstructured datasets through an intuitive interface, Latent Scope runs locally or integrates with popular AI models, offering flexibility and accessibility that unlocks new insights into your datasets.
• A creative tool for interactive art from Tölvera – Artists can create and interact with dynamic, self-organizing systems with Tölvera. Inspired by artificial life, it’s a Python library that allows users to combine built-in behaviors like flocking and swarming or create their own, making it a powerful tool for creative expression.
• On-device semantic search and image recognition from Ente – Providing users with private, durable, and reliable photo storage, Ente Photos is a fully open source platform for storing family photos securely. 

Mozilla’s efforts to build and deploy AI adhere to our mission of 25 years – putting people first, while being truly trustworthy and open. Our role is to advocate for better AI by unlocking resources for smaller, mission-minded builders and offering products incorporating AI solutions for safer digital experiences. The Mozilla Builders Accelerator is a key step forward, and we’re excited to see where these projects go.

Sign up for our newsletter for updates as we follow our participants’ journeys, and if you’re as passionate as we are about the future of open-source AI, there are plenty of ways to get involved – whether by supporting these projects or bringing your own ideas to the table in the next round of applications.

Let’s build the future of AI together, one open-source project at a time.

Learn more about our Mozilla Builders Accelerator 2024 Cohort

Join the conversation

The post 14 AI projects to watch: Mozilla’s first Builders Accelerator cohort kicks off appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

In the world of entrepreneurship, one business owner’s journey proves the power of simple technology.

And group chats.

When Richelle Samy founded Culture of Stamina, a coaching service, she set out to create an online presence that was elegant and professional. She found what she was looking for when a group chat led her to Solo, Mozilla’s AI website creator for solopreneurs. After a few clicks using Solo’s generative AI (GenAI) tools, Richelle had a website for her brand with bold, sharp text and colors that perfectly captured her vision.

For Richelle, Solo enables her to focus more on empowering and training her clients instead of spending hours on her website. Other website builders weren’t as easy.

“Those tools are really nice, but I feel like you need a little bit of knowledge of what you want to do and how you want to put things together,” she recalled. “Whereas with Solo, I knew I was looking for a window for my business for people to contact me, and I only wanted a couple of pages. It was very easy to use something that was already pre-made, versus something I had to do from scratch.”

When Mozilla launched Solo in December, we were curious to see how people like Richelle would receive GenAI with website creation. Six months into this journey, we’re happy with the progress, and it’s time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and learned along the way. We talked with the head of Solo at Mozilla, Raj Singh, about the AI website creator, its journey since the early stages, how it’s disrupting itself in the $2.1 billion website builder software industry with free custom domains and much more. Below is a snippet of our conversation. For the entire interview, follow along at our Innovations Projects blog.

To start, let’s talk about the first few months of Solo since its Beta launch in December. How big is the team, and how many websites have been published?

Solo started in May of last year with just myself and a part-time designer. We built a lightweight, clickable prototype and technical implementation to test whether generative AI could really work for website authoring. We also spent significant time surveying the broader landscape to make sure we had something that could differentiate and compete in an entrenched market.

After initial validation, we added one engineer and started the development process in June. By September, we had our first iteration that could create a website for a solopreneur with just a few simple inputs, and from there, we continued to refine the user experience. In October, we released an internal beta, and then in December, we launched our beta publicly.

Since then, our team within the Mozilla Innovation Projects group grew during this journey from just an engineer, a part-time designer and me, to three engineers, a part-time designer, myself and other part-time resources to support us.

We launched Solo 1.0 this past month, and in that period since beta, we’ve seen over 7,000 published websites across industries, from pool cleaners, to coaches, to immigration consultants.

When we started, our goal was to make it simple for non-technical solopreneurs to build their web presence and grow their business, and we believe we have accomplished the first step.

How do you compete with Solo in such a crowded market? How are you making Solo free?

When we initially conceptualized Solo, marrying GenAI with the service provider segment was an insertion point. Since then, and as expected, the incumbents have also built GenAI capabilities and improved their user experiences for the service provider audience.

In this situation, where we are the underdog, my approach is to look for maximum disruption, and we landed at the business model. Every competitor — that we are aware of, at least — charges for connecting and hosting your custom domain. This makes sense – 20 years ago, bandwidth wasn’t cheap and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates that enable an encrypted web connection cost money. Today, the former is near zero and the latter is zero.

We asked, “What if we just made this free?” This would be very disruptive, so this is exactly what we are doing. Not only is it disruptive, but democratizing the category is also in line with our mission to increase access to the web. We are making web hosting and connecting your custom domain free, similar to how Robinhood disrupted brokerages by eliminating trading fees. Many do not launch their website because they can’t afford or don’t yet have enough business to justify the cost. It also doesn’t help that many of these incumbents rely on hidden upsells and next thing you know, you’re spending $100 a month for your dog walking service. In this way, Mozilla continues to be a global public resource looking out for the interests of people.

How is it building Solo, a new product at Mozilla?

Building a new product at Mozilla, also known as zero to one, and probably any large organization, has challenges. I come from a startup background, so this is my comfort zone and I have some principles I generally abide by.

First, it’s important to be the top advocate for the product. This can be hard because things will pull you in different directions, whether other initiatives, shiny objects or your own self-doubt. Second, adopt the tools you need and optimize on speed — it’s easy to get stuck in administrative stuff. Third, resourcing can be slow, so optimize on generalists and make sure everyone is comfortable with grunt work. Fourth, make product decisions — many of them one-way — quickly. There’s just not enough time to get consensus or have everything be data-driven at the onset. The last thing is to take agency when you can. The five minutes here, the half day there, the follow-up meeting tomorrow cause delays and they compound.

Can you share details about how Solo fits into Mozilla’s overall mission?

In many ways, Mozilla has been at the intersection of the internet and the interests of the people, as opposed to big tech. With Solo, we are squarely within this vision. We are democratizing access to the web for solopreneurs, and we’re increasing equity by helping those that can’t afford to host their websites in emerging markets, or where English isn’t their first language, with writing, designing and curating their content.

For the entire interview, follow along at our Innovations Projects blog.

Ready to start creating?

Launch your website

The post How Mozilla’s AI website creator, Solo, is shaking up a $2.1B industry appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Spotting unreliable reviews on TikTok’s trending products with Fakespot

Fakespot is a browser extension that is powered by AI to help millions of shoppers make better purchases. It analyzes product reviews in real-time across supported retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, giving you the lowdown on which product reviews seem credible and when you should proceed with caution. Whether you’re seeking product pros and cons or highlights, Fakespot has you covered. It even provides seller ratings for eBay and Shopify stores so you can shop with confidence.

How to read Fakespot’s Review Grades

Here’s how Fakespot’s grading system works:

• A and B: Reviews you can trust.
• C: Mixed bag of reliable and unreliable reviews — approach with caution.
• D and F: Probably unreliable.

Top TikTok back-to-school product categories on Amazon and their reliability

We took a deep dive into top back-to-school categories and analyzed their Fakespot product review grades. Here’s what we found:

Laptops

Impressively, nearly 83% of laptop reviews on Amazon appear to be reliable. A safe bet, especially if you’re shopping with the Fakespot extension and sticking to verified retailers. The Lenovo Yoga 7i, a popular choice on TikTok, gets a Fakespot review grade of A. 

• Trending Product: Lenovo Yoga 7i
• Fakespot Review Grade: A 
• Review highlight: “For the price, you can’t beat it.” 

Water bottles

About 30% of water bottle reviews on Amazon appear unreliable. Staying hydrated? Just make sure you’re buying from verified retailers. The Thermos Hydration Bottle has been trending on TikTok and gets a B grade from Fakespot, meaning the product listing has pretty reliable reviews. 

• Trending Product: Thermos Hydration Bottle
• Fakespot Review Grade: B
• Review highlight: “Easy to grip, fits in car cupholders.”

Keyboards and mice

While 34% of Amazon reviews in the keyboards and mice category appear to be unreliable, one popular gaming mouse still earns a solid B from Fakespot, so you can be more confident in the reviews. 

• Trending Product: Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse
• Fakespot Review Grade: B
• Review highlight: “The razer deathadder v3 pro wireless gaming mouse ‘faker edition’ is a tribute to all gamers who seek excellence. It eliminates the shackles of wired gaming, allowing you the freedom to move and game as you wish without compromising on responsiveness or speed.”

Pillows

With 37% of Amazon reviews on pillows appearing unreliable, those trendy pillows still have potential. If you’re looking for a decorative dorm pillow, we found an option with reliable reviews for you to consider. 

• Trending Product: Wedge Body Pillow 
• Fakespot Review Grade: A
• Review highlight: “The item is well-made, very soft and comfortable. Even has a place to hold his cell phone.”

Backpacks

Fakespot detected concerns with nearly half – 47% – of the reviews on backpacks on Amazon. Despite this, we found a durable option with an A review rating from Fakespot. Nonetheless, before you snag any bag, let Fakespot give you confidence that those raves are reliable.

• Trending Product: Laptop Backpack 
• Fakespot Review Grade: A
• Review highlight: “It was light but sturdy and has many pockets for storage.”

Chargers

Those fast chargers blowing up on TikTok? They might not be so fast after all. About 53% of Amazon reviews for chargers seem unreliable. However, this listing for a popular wireless charging dock gets an A from Fakespot, so you can be more confident in the reviews.

• Trending Product: Belkin 2-in-1 MagSafe Wireless Charging Dock
• Fakespot Review Grade: A
• Review highlight: “The base is heavy enough that you don’t pull it around while taking your phone off the charger — it feels like quality material.”

Earbud headphones and computer accessories

In the earbud, headphones and computer accessories category on Amazon, more than half appear to be unreliable reviews (58%)  – so take a beat before you buy. But these noise-canceling headphones, a TikTok favorite, still get a B grade from Fakespot, meaning the reviews are more reliable. 

• Trending Product: Sony WH-1000XM4
• Fakespot Review Grade: B
• Review highlight: “I love blasting my music. I enjoy barbershop music, and you can hear each individual voice so very well in great quality. I’m stunned.”

If you’re one of the millions of students gearing up for the new school year, don’t waste time scrolling through endless product reviews. Download Fakespot today, and spend your time soaking up the last bits of summer instead.

Shop confidently with Fakespot

Download the latest version today

The post Fakespot’s guide to trending back-to-school products  appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This past year has been marked by more and more people recognizing the societal benefits of open source AI. In October, a large coalition of people signed onto our statement emphasizing how openness and transparency are critical ingredients to safety and security in AI. In February, Mozilla and the Columbia Institute of Global Politics convened AI experts, who emphasized how openness in AI could help advance key societal goals. Policymakers have also been embracing open source AI. The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently issued a seminal report embracing openness in AI. Even companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta are beginning to open certain aspects of their AI systems.

The growing focus on open source AI makes it all the more important that we establish a shared understanding of what open source AI is. A definition should outline what must be shared and under what terms or conditions. Without this clarity, we risk a fragmented approach, where companies label their products as “open source” even when they aren’t, where civil society doesn’t have access to the AI components they need for testing and accountability, and policymakers create regulations that fail to address the complexities of the issue.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has recently released a new draft definition of open source AI, marking a critical juncture in the evolution of the internet. This moment comes after two years of conversations, debates, engagements, and late-night conversations across the technical and open source communities. It is critical not just for redefining what “open source” means in the context of AI; it’s about shaping the future of the technology and its impact on society.

The original Open Source Definition, introduced by the OSI in 1998, was more than just a set of guidelines; it was a manifesto for a new way of building software. This definition laid the foundation for open systems that have since become the backbone of the modern internet. From Linux to Apache, open source projects have driven innovation, collaboration and competition, enabling the internet to grow into a diverse and dynamic ecosystem. By ensuring that software could be freely used, modified, and shared, the original open source movement helped to expand access to technology, breaking down barriers to entry and fostering a culture of innovation and transparency, while making software safer and less vulnerable to cyberattacks.

This is a significant step toward bringing clarity and rigor to the open source AI discussion. It introduces a binary definition of “open source,” akin to the existing definition. While this is just one of several approaches to defining open source AI, it offers precision for developers, advocates and regulators who benefit from clear definitions in various working contexts. Specifically, it outlines that open source AI revolves around the ability to freely use, study, modify and share an AI system. And it also promotes the importance of access to key components needed to recreate substantially equivalent AI systems, like information on data used for training, the source code for AI development and the AI model itself.

And, this definition also offers an initial attempt to wrestle with the complex issue of whether and how training data for AI models should be shared as part of open source AI. The definition acknowledges that sharing full training datasets can be challenging in practice, and, therefore, avoids disqualifying a significant amount of otherwise open source AI development from being considered “open source.” We are working to change this state of play by making open datasets a more commonplace part of the AI ecosystem. Mozilla and Eleuther AI recently brought together experts to outline best practices for open datasets to support AI training, and we intend to publish a paper soon that promotes norms that support AI training data being more widely available.

We acknowledge that some may disagree with aspects of OSI’s definition, such as its treatment of training data, and that the definition will need refinement over time. However, we believe that the OSI’s community-driven process — which involved over a year of stakeholder engagement — has established a crucial reference point for discussions on open source AI. For instance, this definition will become a valuable resource to combat the widespread practice of “openwashing” that is becoming quite rampant, where non-open models (or even open-ish models like Meta’s Llama 3) are promoted as leading “open source” options without contributing to the commons. Researchers have shown that “the consequences of open-washing are considerable” and affect innovation, research and the public understanding of AI.

At its core, this effort embodies the open source community at its best — engaging in open discussions, addressing differences, acknowledging shortcomings and refining this definition together, to build something better. It effectively incorporates many key aspects of openness that the open source community has been grappling with, such as going beyond just considering openness in model weights and including broader model components, documentation, and licensing approaches as outlined in the Columbia Convening. In contrast, the closed source ecosystem operates in secrecy, with limited access and behind-the-scenes deals where large tech companies exchange compute power and talent. We prefer our sometimes imperfect but consistently transparent approach any day.

We, and many others, are eager to continue collaborating with OSI and the broader open source community to bring greater clarity to the open source AI discussion and continue unlocking the potential of open source AI for the benefit of society.

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The post Celebrating an important step forward for open source AI appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The second annual Rise25 Awards in Dublin wasn’t just about celebrating 25 AI leaders. It was about mapping out the future.

The Gardiner Brothers, known for bringing Irish dance into the social media spotlight, kicked off the night with a performance that mixed tradition and innovation. Siobhán McSweeney of “Derry Girls” fame hosted the ceremony, and she kept the crowd engaged with humor, quipping, “AI touches everything like a child with sticky fingers that comes around to the house, just after you cleaned it.”

Then, the honorees took the stage to lay out the principles guiding their work. Here are the highlights:

The stories we tell about AI shape its future

Sinéad Bovell, one of the 2024 Rise25 honorees in the artist category, works on preparing young people for a future driven by advanced tech. She emphasized that the narratives we craft around AI are crucial; they frame public understanding and ultimately influence the direction of AI development. 

“It’s such an honor to be recognized in the artist category, because the stories that we tell about artificial intelligence matter deeply,” Sinéad said. She pointed out that it’s easy to feel trapped in a binary narrative about AI, with dangers and risks on one side and benefits and possibilities on the other. “But the truth is, these stories aren’t separate. They’re intertwined,” she said. 

Citing technologist Jaron Lanier, Sinéad argued that to be a true optimist about AI, you also need to be a fierce critic. “We have to continue to tell the stories of a future where we get AI right and where it transforms humanity for the better. But we also have to tell the stories of how we got there, the challenging decisions we made in the present, and where we chose to keep humanity at the center of technological advancements.” For Sinéad, understanding and telling these nuanced stories is essential for guiding AI toward an ethical and inclusive future.

AI’s effects on individuals can be profound

Gemma Galdon-Clavell, an honoree in the entrepreneur category, is focused on finding and fixing bias and flaws in predictive and large language model (LLM) tools. She shared a deeply personal story that underscored the far-reaching impact AI can have on individuals:

“If my school had used an AI system to assess my chances, I wouldn’t be here today. My mom was 14 when she had me. I had huge behavioral problems growing up. If you had inserted all that data into an AI system and asked, ‘Should this girl go to school? Should we invest in her?’ The answer would have been no.” 

Gemma highlighted the dangers of relying solely on algorithms to determine someone’s potential, as these systems often reduce complex lives to mere data points. “I am here because I managed to beat the odds — because no one set my odds in an algorithm.” 

Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the need for rigorous oversight and auditing of AI systems to ensure they don’t limit the futures of those who, like her, might defy expectations. “People, like everyone else, deserve a chance,” she concluded, advocating for a future where AI supports rather than stifles human potential.

Design choices in AI have far-reaching consequences

Philosopher and AI Ethics Lab founder Cansu Canca, a change agent honoree, spoke passionately about the critical importance of ethical design in AI, highlighting how every decision made in the design process has the potential to shape society. 

“When we design AI systems, we’re not just making technical choices. We’re making moral and philosophical decisions,” she said. Cansu challenged developers to consider questions that go beyond code: “What is a good life? What is a better society?” These questions, she argued, should guide every step of AI development. 

“The design choices we make today will determine whether AI becomes a tool for justice or a mechanism that perpetuates inequality,” Cansu warned. She called for an approach to AI that integrates ethical considerations from the outset, ensuring that systems are designed to promote fairness, transparency and respect for human dignity. “Ethical design isn’t an afterthought — it’s the foundation on which AI should be built,” she said, stressing the far-reaching impact of these decisions on our collective future.

AI’s untapped potential lies in open collaboration

Researcher Aaron Gokaslan, an honoree in the builder category, aims to keep generative model development open. He highlighted the immense, largely untapped potential of AI, particularly within the realm of open-source development. 

“We’re in the very early innings of AI today,” he remarked, pointing out that while AI has already made significant strides, its full potential is still on the horizon. Aaron emphasized that the true power of AI will be unlocked through collaboration and accessibility, which would enable a diverse range of innovators to contribute to its development. 

“By sharing knowledge and resources, we can drive AI forward in ways that benefit society as a whole,” Aaron said.

Thoughtful AI policy is essential for a fair future

Philip Thigo, an advocate honoree and the special envoy on technology for the Republic of Kenya, underscored the critical need for thoughtful and proactive AI policy, warning that without it, AI could deepen existing inequalities and erode public trust. 

“AI has the potential to revolutionize society, but without robust and thoughtful regulation, it could also exacerbate inequalities and undermine public trust,” he cautioned. Philip argued that AI policy must prioritize fairness, transparency and accountability to ensure that AI development benefits everyone, not just a privileged few. 

“We need policies that don’t just react to AI’s challenges, but anticipate them — setting clear guidelines for ethical development and use,” he said. Philip called for a collaborative approach to AI governance, involving not only policymakers and technologists, but also the broader public: “By engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, we can create a framework that guides AI toward serving the common good.”

As the honorees made clear, AI will leave its mark wherever it touches, much like those “sticky fingers.” The challenge ahead is making sure that mark is a positive one. The evening was a powerful reminder that the future of AI is not just about innovation — but about inclusivity, ethics and accountability. 

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Firefox users, we’ve got tips for you. The Mozilla team has gathered some of our favorite tricks to help you get the most out of your browser – from customizing the look of Firefox and managing tabs, to watching videos on the sly and staying cozy while gaming. Let’s dive in.

For the cozy gamer

Our senior web UX designer, Elise, loves a cozy game. She finds player guides on her desktop during the day and accesses them on her phone at night through Firefox tab syncing. That way, she doesn’t have to leave her late-night gaming cocoon. 

Read more: Firefox tips and tricks for gamers

For the creative

Being a content creator is fun but demanding. For Steve, Mozilla’s video lead, Firefox features like the eyedropper tool, the built-in PDF editor and picture-in-picture come in handy.

Read more: Firefox tips and tricks for creatives

For the online shopper

Fakespot social producer Hannah is an eBay hawk, a casual Amazon browser and a Sephora VIB insider. Her tips, of course, include avoiding unreliable product reviews with Fakespot. She shares other tricks like how to discreetly shop for gifts online and finding deals without manually searching for coupon codes.

Read more: Firefox tips and tricks for online shopping

For the minimalist

As Mozilla’s blog editor, I do a lot of reading and research, so a minimal browser helps me stay focused. I have a step-by-step guide to turn Firefox into a distraction-free workspace.

Read more: Transform Firefox into the ultimate minimalist browser

For the tab maximalist

Tyler, a global product marketing manager at Mozilla, may not keep 7,000 tabs open. But you can find her with 50+ tabs open across multiple Firefox windows on any given day. From closing duplicate tabs to searching for that one tab you lost in the haystack, here’s her list of tricks to manage tabs.  

Read more: Top 5 Firefox features for tab maximalists

For the newshound

It’s Alex’s job as recommendations editor to find great content for users across Mozilla’s products. He uses Pocket to save and organize articles, plus a number of extensions to stay productive. Alex’s background in journalism also makes him particularly keen on Mozilla’s commitment to security and privacy in making products, including Firefox. 

Read more: Firefox tips and tricks for journalists

For the college student

As a master’s student, Gian has spent too much time searching online for free PDF editors – giving out his email address or downloading dubious software so that he can annotate lecture notes, complete projects and more. Enter Firefox’s built-in PDF editor.

Read more: Streamline your schoolwork with Firefox’s PDF editor

There are endless ways to make Firefox your own, however you choose to navigate the internet. We want to know how you customize Firefox. Let us know and tag us on X or Instagram at @Firefox.

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The post Firefox hacks for everyone: From cozy gamers to minimalists and beyond appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Fill out applications and forms effortlessly

Remember those days when you had to print a form, fill it out and then scan it back into your computer? I know, tedious. With Firefox’s PDF editor, you can fill in forms online directly from your browser. Just open the PDF in Firefox on your smartphone or computer, click the “text” button, and you’re all set to type away. It’s a gamechanger for all those scholarship applications and administrative forms, or even adult-life documents we consistently have to fill. 

Highlight and annotate lecture slides for efficient note-taking

I used to print my professors’ lecture slides and study materials just to add notes. Now, I keep my annotations within the browser – highlighting key points and adding notes. You can even choose your text size and color. This capability not only enhances my note-taking, it saves some trees too. No more losing 50-page printed slides around campus. 

Sign documents electronically without hassle

Signing a PDF document was the single biggest dread I had as a millennial, a simple task made difficult. I used to have to search “free PDF editor” online, giving my personal information to make an account in order to use free software. Firefox makes it simple. Here’s how: Click the draw icon, select your preferred color and thickness, and draw directly on the document. Signing documents electronically finally feels like a 21st century achievement. 

Easily insert and customize images in your PDFs

Sometimes, adding an image to your PDF is necessary, whether it’s a graph for a report or a picture for a project. Firefox lets you upload and adjust images right within the PDF. You can even add alternative text or alt-text to make your documents more accessible, ensuring everyone in your group can understand your work.

There are endless ways to make Firefox your own, however you choose to navigate the internet. We want to know how you customize Firefox. Let us know and tag us on X or Instagram at @Firefox.

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The post Streamline your schoolwork with Firefox’s PDF editor appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Dr. Erica Brozovsky is a sociolinguist, a public scholar and a lover of words. She is the host of Otherwords, a PBS series on language and linguistics, and a professor of writing and rhetoric at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. You can find her at @ericabrozovsky on most platforms. Photo: Kelly Zhu

The internet is ubiquitous: on our desks, in our pockets, even in the air around us, as radio waves transmit between devices so we can be online on the move. It’s a sprawling web of interconnectivity, linking people and gadgets around the world. When computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee wrote his first proposal for a hypertext project called WorldWideWeb in 1989, there’s no way he could have known the impact his invention would have on billions of people across the globe, which he confirmed in a 2014 Reddit AMA. 

In the 35 years since the invention of the World Wide Web, an explosion of new internet words has emerged. As new technologies develop, we adopt words or create novel ones to fill in the linguistic gaps. For example, to describe one of the advancements of the Industrial Revolution, the word train was extended from its older definitions as a procession or sequence of objects in a row. And the steam-powered vehicle pulling a train of railway cars? That brand new technology needed an innovative name: locomotive. People often incorrectly think locomotives and trains are synonymous, and are similarly mistaken with the internet and the World Wide Web. To keep the transportation analogy going, the internet is the railway system, the data that moves between sites or sends emails is the train, and the World Wide Web is the scenery and points of interest along the route.

As far as names go, internet and World Wide Web make sense. The words visualize interconnectedness. Other internet terms like bookmark, which functions digitally the same way as a tangible piece of material is used to denote a place in a book, and email (an abbreviation of electronic mail), show clear parallels in meaning to their analog counterparts. Websites are locations, or sites, on the web. Domains are subsets of the internet under the control of a single authority, much like a physical territory that a ruler would have dominion over. And if you know that the prefix hyper- means above or beyond, you’ll understand that hypertext and hyperlinks essentially go beyond the constraints of normal text and links. But not all internet words are so etymologically evident, and some even come with stories. Let’s start at the very beginning.

When you access the internet, you open a browser (which first appeared as the acronym BROWSER for BRowsing On-Line With SElective Retrieval) and begin to navigate around, otherwise known as surfing the internet. The term is often attributed to librarian Jean Armour Polly, who wanted a pithy metaphor for the fun and chaos of navigating the online world for her 1992 article’s title. Polly wasn’t the only one with a penchant for riding waves online: a 1991 comic book “The Adventures of Captain Internet and CERF Boy” published by CERFnet depicted a superhero who literally surfed around on a surfboard answering internet cries for help.

Keeping it oceanic, the term phishing is attributed to hacker Khan C. Smith in the mid 1990s, allegedly based on the homophone fishing: trawling for sensitive information from a sea of internet users. The alternative spelling is a nod to phreaking, which was a way of hacking telephones (hence “ph”) to avoid paying long-distance phone charges (remember those?). And speaking of pesky things, the word spam comes from an iconic 1970 Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch wherein a horde of Viking cafe-goers repeatedly sing the menu item Spam, drowning out all other conversation.

That’s not the only internet food you’ll encounter. It seems like every website you access will ask you to accept cookies in order to personalize your experience, but weren’t we all raised not to accept sweets from strangers? So where did the name come from? Programmer Lou Montulli got the idea for the web version of cookies from the Unix data token term magic cookie, which sounds even more questionable to accept. There has been no confirmed origin of “magic cookie,” but three main theories prevail: drugs, fairy tales, and literal cookies. Perhaps it comes from the 1960s comic strip “Odd Bodkins” that uses magic cookie as a euphemism for LSD. Or maybe much like the Hansel and Gretel crumb trail, browsing the internet leaves a stream of cookie data in your wake. Or potentially the connection is less imaginative: cookie jars store cookies the way browsers store information.

When you go to delete cookies on your machine, you’ll also be asked if you want to clear your cache. Cache has been around since the turn of the 18th century as a hiding place for goods and treasures, from the French cacher meaning “to hide.” The word was first applied to computing in 1967 by IBM Systems Journal editor, Lyle R. Johnson. Apparently no one had any suggestions for a substitute for the clunky phrase “High Speed Buffer” so Johnson sat down with a thesaurus and came up with cache. 

Another cache on your device is the download cache. Downloading was originally used in military contexts to refer to unloading people or goods from various military vehicles (and uploading was the reverse). By 1968, the US Air Force extended the meaning to computers, as discussed in a quantitative study that referenced downloading records from the IBM 305 RAMAC computer to the newer IBM 1050, which took almost two weeks.

“While we stare at our phones and computer screens, it’s a nice reminder that the intention behind these technologies was to connect us together.”

Dr. Erica Brozovsky, sociolinguist

Thirty years later, Jorn Barger coined the term WebLog, a portmanteau of web and log, to refer to online personal journals. In 1999, perhaps as a joke, Peter Merholz posted in the sidebar of his own website: “”For What It’s Worth, I’ve decided to pronounce the word “weblog” as wee’- blog. Or “blog” for short.”” And now blog has generated other new words like vlog, blogosphere, and blogger. 

Avatar derives from the Sanskrit avatāra, meaning “descent,” which in Hinduism referred to the manifestation of a deity into an Earthly terrestrial form. The 1985 computer game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was the first application of the concept of an on-screen character as the digital incarnation of the human user. Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash popularized the idea, which continues to be applied across a wide variety of genres: video games, social media, virtual worlds, even Hollywood blockbusters.

Speaking of width, bandwidth was initially very literal in the 1800s (the width of a band of color or material) and then evolved significantly over 200 years. We can follow the logical progression to physics and mathematics (a range of values within a limited band), to physics and telecommunications (the difference between two frequencies which represents transmission capacity) to computers and telecommunications (data transfer capacity) to general life (emotional or physical capacity). It’s curious how the term moved beyond computers and technology back to the human experience.

We’re humans after all, and the internet and World Wide Web are tools for expanding our human experience. While we stare at our phones and computer screens, it’s a nice reminder that the intention behind these technologies was to connect us together. After all, Tim Berners-Lee said the thing he’s most proud of about the World Wide Web is “the wonderful global collaborative spirit of all the people who turned up to help build it and build things on it.”

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The post Browsers, cookies and surfing the web: The quirky history of internet lingo appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.