If you're using a VPN at the OS or browser level, just like any other traffic, your query to the LLM service will be routed via the VPN. That VPN could be any VPN of your choice - Firefox VPN, Mullvad, or Proton etc.
The only problem is that most LLMs require a profile/login to work with. In such cases, using a VPN will be useless, as the LLM server will know who you are.
It's just a plain integration with 3rd-party or self-hosted LLM service.
I'm not sure if Mozilla will make money from this feature in any way.
Have you read anything about it anywhere?
It's just an integration with LLM services and not AI baked-in the browser code. You can even self-host any such service (Ollama) and integrate Firefox with it. That will make sure your query is not leaving your network.
In India, the share of Linux desktop became double just within one year (from 8% to 16%). I only hope this data is right.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/india/#monthly-202301-202407
Bad news is that it is not clear at this point whether Mozilla is going to go forward with the implementation. A post on Reddit by one of the project members suggests that the build is a "rough proof-of-concept". Some features tested in the build "did not survive". It is unclear which did not, as they are not mentioned. Mozilla is, however, implementing those that survived the cut into Firefox. Again, the poster does not mention which those are. It is also not verified that the poster is actually a member of the project team, so take this with a grain of salt as well.
All of these are signs of persistent threat actors aka State sponsor hacker. Though the real motive we would never know as it's now a failed project.
There is a work-in-progress version of Firefox for iOS with Gecko engine.
But, there is also a challenge that Mozilla is facing as Apple is still trying to make life of developers of other browsers as difficult as possible.
So, not sure how the whole thing will turn out.
What Firefox provides here:
From a coding perspective, this should ideally be a very lightweight functionality.
This feature is very analogous to options to add a search engine, and also to provide accelerators via context menu.
While it can be done via third-party or Official Mozilla add-ons, but (to me) it still makes sense to have it part of the product.