Thunderbird launches Thundermail and Pro services to offer an open-source alternative to Gmail and Office365, focused on privacy, freedom, and user control.
Thunderbird Assist will also be available. This experimental feature, developed in collaboration with Flower AI, offers optional artificial intelligence functionalities for users who want them while also addressing privacy concerns head-on. On devices robust enough to handle AI models locally, Thunderbird Assist processes everything on the user’s own machine.
However, for users on less powerful hardware, the development team has integrated NVIDIA’s confidential computing to keep any remote processing secure. Rest assured, those who prefer to skip AI services can continue using Thunderbird without these extras.
I’ve been unwilling to touch cloud based AI, much less expose my emails to it as there’s no guarantee of privacy, but being able to run a local model allows you the functionality without the risk. Haven’t used Thunderbird in years, but this is tempting me to give it another shot.
“AI” or as they were called for the longest time machine learning algorithms can do things like spell check and help with grammar.
The more modern algorithms that they started really calling AI can help format your ideas, can fix sentence structure, and can even translate into foreign languages
Email is probably the most useful place for AI as most of the ones we talk about today are really good at language formatting but don’t really have any intelligence
For example you can write an email cursing out your boss saying “as I fucking told you yesterday” and then ask the AI to rewrite your email in a professional tone so that it says “per my previous email” like sure you can obviously do that yourself but it’s a lot faster to word vomit your thoughts into a computer especially when it’s trivial work related garbage and save your mental energy for your personal time
Trying real hard not to be old man yelling at clouds, but have things gotten so bad people can no longer write a simple email without help with sentence structure?
I’m a software developer, not a writer or a salesperson, but I have to do sales to sell my software.
I can write a first draft of a sales email to get my ideas across and then have the AI look at it from a specific perspective I don’t have the skills in.
I dont just take whatever it says and hit send though, I have a conversation with it to tweak things i don’t like, remove things that I don’t think are needed or add things it missed.
Do this for 15 to 20 minutes and I end up with a much more polished email that won’t come across as AI slop with all the personal touches I did want to add.
Just a question on the value of time: If you can’t be bothered to write it, why should anyone bother to read it? Is it really that valuable of a message?
I can spend 10-20 min writing an email that basically says “no your idea is dumb and won’t work” to customers in such a way where by the end of it they agree with me.
It can take a bit of effort but with high stakes communication it’s needed.
If you’re just sending an email to your teacher or whatever it doesn’t really matter.
I keep saying this. As if humans aren’t dumb enough and lazy as hell without AI… I’ve met maybe 1 younger person out of hundreds that actually shows interest in learning and work ethic (the good kind, not boomerism). I’m not even old, but it’s looking like a dark road for humans. Now Fuck You, this is Carl’s Jr!
I think that a lot of the “laziness” comes from alienation from your labour. People are going to work the least amount to get their paycheck and if their job doesn’t account for the effort they put in, they aren’t going to do anything but the bare minimum.
That’s true. If you are only working to enrich your boss by shipping. 02% more packages per day, it’s degrading. However we all have to work to live, I believe in working hard no matter the job, and if the job sucks, become irreplaceable, then find something better.
Ok, this part is pretty cool:
I’ve been unwilling to touch cloud based AI, much less expose my emails to it as there’s no guarantee of privacy, but being able to run a local model allows you the functionality without the risk. Haven’t used Thunderbird in years, but this is tempting me to give it another shot.
Why on earth would I want AI integrated in my email?
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Serious. I can’t think of what good slapping AI in there does. Is speech to text that’s existed for decades considered a LLM and therefore AI?
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No, I don’t think humility is the problem. It’s just a bullshit idea that nobody needs.
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You’re going to do all that in your emails?
deleted by creator
“AI” or as they were called for the longest time machine learning algorithms can do things like spell check and help with grammar.
The more modern algorithms that they started really calling AI can help format your ideas, can fix sentence structure, and can even translate into foreign languages
Email is probably the most useful place for AI as most of the ones we talk about today are really good at language formatting but don’t really have any intelligence
For example you can write an email cursing out your boss saying “as I fucking told you yesterday” and then ask the AI to rewrite your email in a professional tone so that it says “per my previous email” like sure you can obviously do that yourself but it’s a lot faster to word vomit your thoughts into a computer especially when it’s trivial work related garbage and save your mental energy for your personal time
Trying real hard not to be old man yelling at clouds, but have things gotten so bad people can no longer write a simple email without help with sentence structure?
I’m a software developer, not a writer or a salesperson, but I have to do sales to sell my software.
I can write a first draft of a sales email to get my ideas across and then have the AI look at it from a specific perspective I don’t have the skills in.
I dont just take whatever it says and hit send though, I have a conversation with it to tweak things i don’t like, remove things that I don’t think are needed or add things it missed.
Do this for 15 to 20 minutes and I end up with a much more polished email that won’t come across as AI slop with all the personal touches I did want to add.
Just a question on the value of time: If you can’t be bothered to write it, why should anyone bother to read it? Is it really that valuable of a message?
I do write something, and then work to refine it. Like I said, I spent 15 to 20 minutes on it after writing it.
Don’t tell that you need so much time to write an email 😳
Depends on the email. Sometimes it’s needed.
I can spend 10-20 min writing an email that basically says “no your idea is dumb and won’t work” to customers in such a way where by the end of it they agree with me.
It can take a bit of effort but with high stakes communication it’s needed.
If you’re just sending an email to your teacher or whatever it doesn’t really matter.
They don’t list which stolen data Flower Ai was trained on. Ai slop is Ai slop and will only lead to less critical thinking from the general population: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf
I keep saying this. As if humans aren’t dumb enough and lazy as hell without AI… I’ve met maybe 1 younger person out of hundreds that actually shows interest in learning and work ethic (the good kind, not boomerism). I’m not even old, but it’s looking like a dark road for humans. Now Fuck You, this is Carl’s Jr!
I think that a lot of the “laziness” comes from alienation from your labour. People are going to work the least amount to get their paycheck and if their job doesn’t account for the effort they put in, they aren’t going to do anything but the bare minimum.
That’s true. If you are only working to enrich your boss by shipping. 02% more packages per day, it’s degrading. However we all have to work to live, I believe in working hard no matter the job, and if the job sucks, become irreplaceable, then find something better.