Almost three weeks ago, Mozilla released the Firefox 141, which, among other features like memory optimizations for Linux and a built-in unit converter, brought controversial artificial intelligence-enhanced tab groups.
Powered by a local AI model, these groups identify relevant tabs and suggest names for them. There’s even a “Suggest more tabs for group” button that users can click to get recommendations.
Now, several users on the Firefox subreddit are complaining about high CPU usage when using the feature, and expressing their frustration with the addition of artificial intelligence to Mozilla's browser.
st8ic88 noticed that his machine's CPU usage and thus battery life had plummeted. When he opened the task manager, he noticed that the “Inference” process was the cause. As the comments indicate, this is the process that Firefox uses to handle artificial intelligence directly on your device.
Of course the reddit user is not happy about this:
“I don't want this garbage bloat my browser, blow up my CPU, and kill my battery life. There's absolutely no reason for this, it's not a good feature, and it's absolutely humiliating for Firefox to follow this trend.”
The purpose of a browser is to DOWNLOAD AND DISPLAY WEBSITES.
Another user who checked his system's process manager with Conky confirmed that the "Inference" process is a new addition and is resource-intensive. Stopping the process simply caused Firefox to crash and require a restart.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
