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Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

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Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#81

Post by koolala »

freehorse wrote: post #49
jonathanstrange wrote: post #21

I can't imagine any reasonable use case for having AI tightly integrated into a browser (or an operating system, for what it's worth). Why not make a browser plugin or a web page or an app? I don't get it.

Local translations?

Is it just as easy to make an extension that runs a local AI translation model? Translation would benefit from having a community continuously updating and tuning local models for languages.

If it was an extension it would be nice if people could fork it with other models. Just like their AI Tab Grouping feature would be much better forked with a deterministic non-AI grouping system.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#82

Post by ooterness »

freehorse wrote: post #49
jonathanstrange wrote: post #21

I can't imagine any reasonable use case for having AI tightly integrated into a browser (or an operating system, for what it's worth). Why not make a browser plugin or a web page or an app? I don't get it.

Local translations?

Sounds like a great plugin.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#83

Post by [deleted] »

joduplessis wrote: post #11

> We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this. Honestly, is anybody reading what's getting written anymore? If it gets taken seriously it would ship with an enable-AI button, not the other way round.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#84

Post by fsflover »

catapart wrote: post #65
dblohm7 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it gets taken seriously it would ship with an enable-AI button, not the other way round. Like the one described in the subsequent toot? > All AI features will also be opt-in. I think there are some grey areas in what 'opt-in' means to different people (e.g. is a new toolbar button opt-in?)... https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500918701463

I was about to use a quote to show you that "no, it's not like what is described in the thread", but you included the salient bit in the second quote, yourself. It's not a gray area, and "opt-in" isn't something to be weasled-worded around. If the browser has the capability, I don't want it. I want to be able to add it with a plugin, and that's it . Plugins should have full control to whatever is necessary (same as a…

> It's not a gray area, and "opt-in" isn't something to be weasled-worded around

How about "Translate" button?

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#85

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

joduplessis wrote: post #11

> We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this. Honestly, is anybody reading what's getting written anymore? If it gets taken seriously it would ship with an enable-AI button, not the other way round.

No, it wouldn't. Because the average user might actually want the features, and if you default to "no" without asking people even once, the users who want it won't find it.

That's why it should ask - once. And offer a "FUCK OFF NEVER ASK ME AGAIN" button rather than "Ask me again later".

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#86

Post by wtallis »

glenstein wrote: post #76
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> New CEO says he's not going to remove adblockers, people suspect him for planning to remove adblockers. New CEO says they've run the numbers and decided to not kill adblockers, leading to people asking why exactly they were running those numbers (if it was an actual ideological commitment, the numbers wouldn't matter). > Mozilla says they'll add a killswitch for all AI features (so that the tiny but vocal anti-AI m…

The creator of VLC has publicly noted dollar amounts they could raise if they either sold or compromised VLC, but it came and went without controversy. OBS Studio, 7-Zip, Notepad++, and Nextcloud have all published offers they've received and declined, or quoted per-install payment figures. In fact, it's practically a rite of passage for open source projects to talk about the value of their work in terms of what they…

Please stop calling people deranged for expecting Mozilla to do the right thing without dissembling. Having your previous such comment flagged and killed should have been sufficient reminder to you that you're behaving inappropriately for this forum.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#87

Post by gldrk »

ekr____ wrote: post #68
gldrk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to bash Mozilla because it is failing. Their usage share is a statistical error, and most of it comes from being shipped with Ubuntu. Firefox badly needs a value proposition beyond not being Chromium-based.

> Their usage share is a statistical error, and most of it comes from being shipped with Ubuntu. This is not true, and is easily verifiable for yourself. https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/hardware The vast majority of Firefox usage is on Windows.

I am surprised. Does that imply most GNU/Linux users go out of their way to install Chromium actually? Ubuntu and Firefox have a similar market share.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#88

Post by jamesgill »

yoavm wrote: post #14
joduplessis wrote: post #11

> We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this. Honestly, is anybody reading what's getting written anymore? If it gets taken seriously it would ship with an enable-AI button, not the other way round.

I love threads about Mozilla. New CEO says he's not going to remove adblockers, people suspect him for planning to remove adblockers. Mozilla says they'll add a killswitch for all AI features (so that the tiny but vocal anti-AI minority will be happy), and people blame them for not having it as an enable-switch. Whatever they do, they simply cannot win. I'm personally starting to suspect the main issue with Mozilla i…

He didn't say he wasn't going to remove ad blockers; he said "I don't want to". No commitment or position, just a preference.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#89

Post by glenstein »

homebrewer wrote: post #74
JoeBOFH wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am speaking from only my personal experience, but I would say the vast majority of Firefox users are using Firefox to avoid Chrome and Chrome likes. That being said I would say they are then more likely and inclined to also utilize extensions.

According to Mozilla's own stats, most Firefox users do not have any extensions at all: > Has Add-on shows the percentage of Firefox Desktop clients with user-installed add-ons. > December 8, 2025 > 45.4% https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/usage-behavior Note that language packs are counted as extensions. Some have disabled telemetry, of course, but how many? Here we can only rely on our own observations, and of all…

Always appreciate people citing real data! I honestly would not have been able to guess one way or the other but unfortunately most comments are kind of hip firing in random directions that are impossible to keep track of, so it helps to keep these discussions grounded.

Re: Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

#90

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

gigel82 wrote: post #30
samschooler wrote: post #23

I'm going to chime in here, I think 1. This is great and Mozilla is listening to it's core fans and 2. I want Firefox to be a competitive browser. Without AI enabled features + agent mode being first class citizens, this will be a non-starter in 2 years. I want my non-tech family members/friends to install Firefox not because I come over at Christmas, but because they want to. Because it's a browser that "just works.…

I'd love to live in your world for a bit... I can't imagine any future where having AI in your browser is a net positive for any user. It sounds like an absolute dystopian privacy and security nightmare.

Why?

Imagine you have an AI button. When you click it, the locally running LLM gets a copy of the web site in the context window, and you get to ask it a prompt, e.g. "summarize this".

Imagine the browser asks you at some point, whether you want to hear about new features. The buttons offered to you are "FUCK OFF AND NEVER, EVER BOTHER ME AGAIN", "Please show me a summary once a month", "Show timely, non-modal notifications at appropriate times".

Imagine you choose the second option, and at some point, it offers you a feature described as follows: "On search engine result pages and social media sites, use a local LLM to identify headlines, classify them as clickbait-or-not, and for clickbait headlines, automatically fetch the article in an incognito session, and add a small overlay with a non-clickbait version of the title". Would you enable it?

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