Mozilla, which only announced the CEO change last week, will cut nearly 60 employees this week and will scale back a number of projects to focus resources on AI, mobile apps and other fields.
Mozilla told ** that it will cut 5% of its workforce, or about 60 people, and will also reduce investments in several products to focus on areas with a better chance of success. The Register reports that VPN Relay and Mastodon social media platform MozillaSocial and collaboration platform hubs have been reduced in resources. Silicon Valley reported that Mozilla Monitor Plus, a paid personal information breach monitoring service announced only last week, is not among the development priorities.
As for the future, Mozilla will focus on Firefox Mobile and AI, believing that there is still a lot of room for growth. Mozilla only announced at the end of last month that AI is a key focus for Mozilla's mission to put people first, trust, and be open. Mozilla invested $35 million in responsible AI under Mozilla Ventures in 2022 and $30 million in R&D funding to develop MozillaTrusted AI projects for AI. Mozilla believes the company can "create better AI models" for the industry.
Mozilla announced last week that CEO Mitchell Baker will be stepping down after nearly five years in office and will seek a successor, with director Laura Chambers as interim CEO responsible for "strengthening the vision and strategy, as well as working on core products such as Firefox and new product development".