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The Mozilla Manifesto originally described the Mozilla Project as “a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the internet.” That statement was prescient at the time and remains on point today. The pace of change and explosion of creativity we see around the internet today fuels the ongoing need for prioritization of openness, innovation, and opportunity – and the embracing of community – just as when the Mozilla Project began 25 years ago.

Mozilla’s broad global community is welcoming of those who step away and come back to it, and I appreciate being a part of that living, breathing community. I first joined Mozilla Corporation in 2018 as General Counsel, because I believed in the power of Mozilla’s products and was wowed by the caliber of minds it drew into its orbit. In 2021 I left to join Planet Labs PBC (“Planet”), to help Planet find its path as a public benefit company focused on using space to help life on Earth. And in doing so I have learned firsthand about building and developing public benefit missions, while also learning about community-building from a new lens.

Today I’m returning to Mozilla to participate in a new way. I’m joining the Mozilla Foundation board to contribute to the Mozilla Project as a board member, in service of my belief that technology, society, and the internet itself deserves the kind of thoughtful, passionate, inclusive, and dedicated advocates that Mozilla brings to the table in many forms. And because the concepts of “openness, innovation and opportunity” in the Mozilla Manifesto remain so very important to the issues we see facing technology and the internet today.

We’ve seen these cycles of accelerated progress and innovation before. At each step along the way as a society, these moments of expansion and innovation need people and organizations, like the Mozilla Foundation, to help us collectively take a step back and think about what we are building and what the impact of building it will be. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to come back and contribute to the Mozilla Project again.

The post Amy Keating: Why I am Joining the Mozilla Board appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today, I’m excited to welcome Amy Keating as a new member of the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors. You can see comments from Amy here.

As Mitchell said when we put out a call for three new board members last month: it’s a critical time for Mozilla to be thinking bigger and being bolder about how we can shape the coming era of the internet. As we do this, we need Board members who bring both vision and practical experience to push us in this direction. Amy brings both of these things. 

Amy is currently the Chief Legal Officer at Planet Labs, a satellite imaging company that is one of the few public benefit corporations that is also publicly traded. Before that, she served as Chief Legal Officer at Mozilla Corporation where she oversaw the Legal, Policy and Security Assurance functions. Amy also served as Vice President, Legal and Deputy General Counsel at Twitter, Inc., which she joined in 2012 as Twitter’s first lawyer focused on litigation. 

Throughout her career, Amy has been a strong advocate for public policy that will ensure the internet remains open and accessible to all. She brings deep expertise on topics like US Section 230 and competition in consumer internet markets. During her tenure at Mozilla, she led Mozilla through Mozilla v. FCC, which sought to overturn the rollback of federal net neutrality protections.

As an executive, Amy has a strong track record balancing mission and values with commercial growth and complex risk. At Planet, she played a key role in bringing Planet to the NYSE as a public benefit corporation. Her work includes helping build governance systems reflective of Planet’s mission of using space to benefit life on Earth. Amy also played a key role in evolving Mozilla’s approach to mission-based business while in her executive role here.

All of this — plus Amy’s deep commitment to and history with Mozilla — will help us as we focus on the next chapter of our work. 

With Amy’s appointment, we are filling one of three Mozilla Foundation Board seats that we currently have open. As we continue our search, we have a strong focus on diversity and global representation. We’re also seeking Board members with experience: a) running world class advocacy campaigns and b) running complex global organizations. 

Please join me in welcoming Amy Keating to the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors. You can read more about how Amy wants to help here in her post on ‘Why I’m Joining the Mozilla Board’.

The post Amy Keating Joins the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Artificial intelligence has entered a new era. From search to education to art, recent advancements in AI promise to shake up the way we work and live.

Yet for some of us, AI poses more questions than answers. How will it affect us? Are there risks? How do we make it trustworthy?

Before we can answer these complex questions, it helps to get the basics down on AI. Read on for a crash course on artificial intelligence.

First, what exactly is AI?

AI is essentially software that can learn patterns from information. Think language, images, audio, online behavior and more. Using patterns from existing and new data, AI makes predictions to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence – like finding products we’re likely to buy or finishing a sentence in an email.

How does it work?

Take a customer service chatbot, for example. After you type a question, the chatbot uses an algorithm – or a set of rules  – to recognize keywords and identify what kind of help you need. The machine learning model, based on the existing and new information it has, then generates an appropriate response. The chatbot improves over time as it interacts with new customers and receives more data. 

“Think about the algorithm as the program that works with the dataset, and the model is the output that makes the prediction,” explained Mozilla researcher Becca Ricks.

Why are chatbots like ChatGPT sounding more… human?

The latest chatbots use a type of machine learning model called a neural network. Inspired by the structure of the human brain, it’s designed to learn increasingly complex patterns to come up with predictions and recommendations. With chatbots, the model learns language from a large amount of existing and new data, making it really good at sounding how a person might talk. 

Can AI get things wrong?

Absolutely. AI models learn from data, which can be incomplete. ChatGPT, for instance, is a language model trained on data on the internet. That’s why it may have trouble solving simple math problems. 

AI can also produce biased outputs. For example, image recognition trained on a set of images featuring mostly light-skinned people may not be able to recognize individuals with darker skin tones. Algorithms and data come from humans, so AI technologies typically follow biases that exist – like ones based on race, gender and age. 

“They might affect whether or not our friends are seeing what we post,” Becca said. “Or, they might affect whether or not we’re getting resources from our local government.” 

How do we make sure we can trust AI?

The first step is learning about it. From there, we can demand transparency and accountability.

“The more that we all know the way AI systems work, the easier it makes for us to imagine what better looks like,” Becca said. “And it makes it easier for us to design alternatives that benefit society and reflect the values of our communities.”

For a deeper dive on AI, the people who are creating it and stories about how it’s affecting communities, check out the latest season of Mozilla’s IRL Podcast. And if you’re a builder looking to create trustworthy AI solutions, you’re encouraged to apply to Mozilla’s Responsible AI Challenge. Applications close on Thursday, April 20.

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The post How does AI actually work? appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Mozilla is celebrating 25 years with Rise 25, a celebration of 25 individuals who are doing groundbreaking work to make the internet a better place.

Do you know someone who’s shaping the future of the internet? Tell us about them!

This year marks Mozilla’s 25th anniversary, and we’re raising a toast with Rise 25 – a celebration of 25 individuals who are doing groundbreaking work to make the internet a better place. The best part? We’re enlisting your help to find them.

Think about it: Who’s making a difference in your online community? Who’s keeping you signing on? Who’s not a household name yet but will be a decade from now? 

We want your nominations for five categories: 

1. Artists: These are the creative forces creating innovative and thought-provoking digital artwork. Nominate artists who use the internet as their canvas to inspire others and re-think what’s possible online.

2. Activists: We’re recognizing the activists who are using the internet to drive social and political change. Nominate individuals who are using the internet to amplify their voices and make a difference in the world.

3. Creators: These are the content creators using storytelling to build community online. Nominate the filmmakers, educators, comedians and social media creators inspiring their audiences and sparking important conversations.

4. Builders: These are the engineers and technical people building the infrastructure of the internet. Nominate the builders shaping the technical side of the web, making it faster, more secure and accessible to everyone.

5. Advocates: This category is for the people shaping the policies and regulations governing the internet. Nominate the policymakers, lawyers and advocates who are fighting for an open, free internet.

Each category will have five winners to make up Mozilla’s Rise 25. Starting today, you can nominate your friend, your favorite influencer or even yourself. We want to hear from you!

And hey, we’re not just doing this for fun (although it will be fun). By recognizing and celebrating the people who are shaping the web now, we’re helping ensure a positive future for all. So let’s get to it.

Join us as we celebrate our 25th anniversary and honor the game-changers who are shaping the future of the internet. Send us your nominations today.

The post Who’s shaping the future of the internet? Nominate your pick for Mozilla’s Rise 25 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn’t perfect, but we are also quick to point out that the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for people to connect with others, and lets everyone find where they belong — their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In My Corner Of The Internet, we talk with people about the online spaces they can’t get enough of, what we should save in Pocket to read later, and what sites and forums shaped them.

This month we chat with human rights activist and journalist Düzen Tekkal. She is one of the guest authors of the book “People of Deutschland”, a collection of 45 stories about everyday racism and how to change Germany for the better. The book was published with support from Pocket.

What is your favorite corner of the internet? 

My most favorite corners of the internet are the Instagram profiles of friends and family. Because of my tight schedule, I don’t get to see them or spend time with them as much as I would love to. So this is a good way to keep in touch with them and their daily lives.

Other favorite corners of the internet are those that offer lightheartedness and joy, because as a human rights activist, I am confronted with painful stories on a daily basis.

What is an internet deep dive that you can’t wait to jump back into?

That would be the interactive film/webpage “Big Village” by Iranian-Dutch filmmaker Beri Shalmashi. It tells the story of the Kurdish village of Gewredê in Iraq, where she was born and where she spent the first two years of her life. It deals with the Kurdish resistance against the Khomeini dictatorship in Iran and the repression to which Iran’s Kurds were subjected after the Ayatollah’s coup in 1979. 

What is the one tab you always regret closing?

All the news regarding my sister Tuğba’s project at HÁWAR.help “SCORING GIRLS*”, with which she offers free of charge football trainings for disadvantaged girls who oftentimes have a history of flight and migration. (But I always come back to those tabs whenever I find the time, because her project and the girls spark a lot of joy!)

What can you not stop talking about on the internet right now?

I’m very involved in political and human rights work around the ongoing feminist revolution in Iran right now. There’s so much to report on on a daily basis, so this is why I can’t stop talking about it.


What was the first online community you engaged with?

This question brings me way back. It was StudiVZ, a German social media platform for students that was very popular in the 2000s and into the early 2010s. Much akin to Facebook in its very early days.

What articles and videos are in your Pocket waiting to be read/watched right now?

All the articles on Iran by Solmaz Khorsand for republik.ch.

If you could create your own corner of the internet, what would it look like?

It would be a space in which viewers can find beauty (fashion, interior design, etc.). It would be political and relevant with regards to what brings us forward as a society as a whole. But also a corner that has space for funny content! A corner that reflects my own life in a way, filled with contradictions but that hopefully makes sense nonetheless.


As someone who uses the internet to share important stories and raise awareness about human rights issues, do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to online content? 

The Instagram accounts by Celeste Barber and German comedian Helge Mark Lodder are super hilarious! And then there is my own sister Tülin Tekkal, who is a comedian as well. Also, with her group of friends, she does impressions of the @elevatorboys with their account @fahrstuhlgirls. I always crack up with laughter when they upload a new video!

Düzen Tekkal is a political scientist, social entrepreneur, war correspondent, filmmaker, journalist and author. For her documentary “Háwar – My Journey into Genocide,” she traveled to Iraq several times and documented the genocide of the Yazidis there. With her sisters, she founded the human rights organization HÁWAR.help and the nonpartisan educational initiative GermanDream.

Save and discover the best articles, stories and videos on the web Get Pocket

The post A human rights activist on finding joy on the internet appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.