this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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[–] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a bit of an aside, I learned recently why Mozilla has the weird Corporate/Foundation structure that it does: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701441

Basically the IRS is highly skeptical of the idea that free software development fits the legal definition of a 501(c)(3), and tends to reject such applications [1][2]. That is why Mozilla Foundation cannot use donations for Firefox development, and instead uses them for activism.

Someone claiming to be the CEO of one of these foundations appears to confirm it. Just thought people might be interested to know since this comes up in pretty much every thread about Mozilla.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 8 points 1 month ago

If that's the case, isn't it strange Mozilla is shuffling their funds to a different for-profit subsidiary to build a different product?

[–] drrodneymckay_@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is this talking about Thunderbolt 3, 4, 5, is will this require Thunderbolt 6 when it comes out...

I don't think my cables are fast enough to load Ai, nor do I have it in my rack where I would be running an enterprise AI...

Stupid naming, why is everyone trying to cause confusion and why are so few getting into trouble for it. Maybe the original owners of the name should loose access as they are not enforcing the Trademark.

[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Trademarks are generally confined to their trade, like how dove soap and dove chocolate aren't at all affiliated? I guess they figured nobody would confuse cables for programs

[–] drrodneymckay_@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

I can see that, but with tech if feels extra close as the name will certainly end up on a non descript bullet point list of compatibilities together somewhere, or it will be thought of as an accessory to each other.

Thunderbolt Ai is an tool for managing Ai running on thunderbolt rdma network configurations.... that kinda thing. It's hard picking a good name, but this feels like something a org would want to avoid getting to close to.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago

Why is Mozilla using their money to build a free product, in partnership with a company that appears to have enough money for itself?

DeepSet raised $44 million in venture capital funding. It should be able to fund the project themselves, like how Google funds Firefox.

Meanwhile, Mozilla has promised $65 million total, for numerous AI projects and AI advocacy... stuff... and that funding has probably already spread pretty thin with dozens of beneficiaries.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world -5 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] timestatic@feddit.org 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

I get why people dislike AI being shoved down their throats but optional self-hostable open source AI is really good no

[–] lyralycan@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If you run your own AI and watch how long it takes, how much it runs up the resources for a few seconds, then you might get an idea of what it's like hosting at least three copies of a multi-terabyte LLM, in memory, with much shorter response and a much bigger knowledge base (Gemini by Google), taking millions of prompts per minute. Then think of every company that's hosting major public AI services.

Then remember that the only things good that come out of AI are natural language inference for voice commands and slightly improved developer processes.

Hosting it is just a reminder of the rapid environmental, ecological and cultural destruction that is the AI bubble.

In summary: Perhaps, if the hoster wants it for streamlining their dev process. Otherwise it can be replaced with a far more efficient standard algorithmic program, which is what we had before.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

AI can be used for some really cool scientific and medical purposes, but the shit being offered commercially ain't it bruh. I'm sickened by the recent development. It's a scam and a long con. Might not even pass as a long con.

I'm loving the YouTube accounts that have come up where they ridicule the ineptitude of AI chat bots. Hilarious stuff.

[–] WesternInfidels@feddit.online 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Maybe, maybe not.

The question I have is: How is this the best way for a non-profit to shape and steward the open web?

[–] varnia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Criticism on LLMs has two angles:

  • Data usage and energy cost while running it - this you would have under control when selfhosting
  • Training of the LLM: You have no control over how the LLM was trained - not which data sources were used, the forkforce that cleaned up the data or the amount and type of energy used to do so
[–] XLE@piefed.social -3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Mozilla is burning donation money on this entry into an already full market, it hooks into cloud models, and at best (if you download one instead) you'll be left with a wrapper around a closed-source binary made by a Big Tech corporation.

Don't donate to Mozilla, because this is where Mozilla donations go. Google funds Firefox, donations (to MZLA) fund Thunderbird. Mozilla Foundation funds get sunk into this.

[–] timestatic@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why are you on such a hate spree against Mozilla? I can understand reasons for not liking Mozilla or not donating but you're going around even on unrelated comments telling people not to donate. I donated to thunderbird before but not Mozilla directly and I will keep doing that from time to time as I like thunderbird

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Because if something is optional, people may want to opt out of funding it.

MZLA is being tasked with developing this enterprise AI software, and even with the money coming from the outside, I don't see any feasible way it won't distract from Thunderbird development unless a whole bunch of new employees get hired to work in this separate software. Do you?

[–] jafra@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Anything more or is it about AI scare?