Mozilla rolls out first AI features in Firefox Nightly, and theyre actually useful.
blog.mozilla.org
Tldr: Theyre adding an opt-in alt text generation for blind people and an opt-in ai chat sidebar where you can choose the model used (includes self-hosted ones)
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Mozilla isn't in charge of the extension API, it uses Chromium's WebExtensions API
No. They are basing their implementation on that of Chrome, but nobody is forcing Mozilla to do this ... So yes, Mozilla is responsible for all the APIs they integrate. Of course.
Yeah, just create an entirely new, incompatible extension engine from scratch for this one feature specifically!
This is absolutely not how any of this works.
While Mozilla implements the WebExtensions API based on the W3C standard, they are not bound to a 100% verbatim implementation. Like other browser vendors, Mozilla has the flexibility to extend or modify the API as needed, as long as they maintain compatibility with the core standard. Adding new APIs or features to the extension system does not require creating an entirely incompatible engine. Browser vendors often add non-standard extensions to APIs, which can later be proposed for inclusion in the next version of the standard if they prove useful. So, Mozilla can certainly add new APIs to their extension system without making it incompatible with the existing WebExtensions ecosystem. This is not difficult to understand.