zappa: an AI powered mitmproxy

· web ai · Source ↗

TLDR

  • geohot built a mitmproxy plugin that pipes all web traffic through Qwen via Cerebras API to strip ads, popups, and dark patterns before pages reach the browser.

Key Takeaways

  • The plugin intercepts HTML, JS, and CSS and instructs Qwen to remove ads, popups, bright colors, and moving elements before returning cleaned pages.
  • Built with GPT-5.4 assistance; requires mitmproxy, Firefox configured for SOCKS5 proxy, and a trusted HTTPS cert installed.
  • geohot tested with uBlock Origin disabled: Chrome showed the default web, Firefox via the proxy returned a stripped version.
  • Proposed next step is a browser extension with a user-customizable prompt, shareable like uBlock Origin filter lists, plus per-site agentic state.
  • The proxy currently uses Qwen at Cerebras inference costs, framed as running ad impressions against a sub-cent model rather than a human.

Why It Matters

  • A proxy-layer approach lets any model rewrite the web before the browser renders it, without waiting for browser vendors to permit extension APIs.
  • If inference costs drop to commodity levels, every user could run a persistent agent that filters hostile UI patterns before they load.
  • The pattern inverts the ad-attention model: advertisers pay for impressions served to automated agents, not human eyeballs.

the singularity is nearer · 2026-04-14 · Read the original

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