Why not just ship it without any of the AI stuff and give users the option to install and use it instead of bloating the application? This also confirms that the stuff is essentially OPT OUT instead of OPT IN
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
508 points (98.7% liked)
Technology
77843 readers
3163 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
508
Firefox Will Ship with an "AI Kill Switch" to Completely Disable all AI Features - 9to5Linux
(9to5linux.com)
After the controversial news shared earlier this week by Mozilla’s new CEO that Firefox will evolve into “a modern AI browser,” the company now revealed it is working on an AI kill switch for the open-source web browser.
On Tuesday, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo was named the new CEO of Mozilla Corporation, the company behind the beloved Firefox web browser used by almost all GNU/Linux distributions as the default browser.
In his message as new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo stated that Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software while remaining the company’s anchor, and that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
What was not made clear is that Firefox will also ship with an AI kill switch that will let users completely disable all the AI features that are included in Firefox. Mozilla shared this important update earlier today to make it clear to everyone that Firefox will still be a trusted web browser.
The bubble is AI and they want some of that bubble investor money is my guess, so they put optional AI
"On by default unless you run down a setting buried in a menu" is the thinnest type of optional in computing.
load more comments
(1 replies)
In their defense a very tiny percentage of users even open options and of those an even smaller actually change stuff.
Maybe slighlty different for Firefox as probably more power user use it than other random programs. But basically if something is not enabled by default, it doesn't exist.
Because they're counting on people who know nothing about technology using the AI stuff when it's placed in front of them.
And also ..... will the kill switch turn off the AI entirely ... or partially? Since the AI system is baked in, will elements of it still operate in the background even if you turn off the switch?
load more comments
(7 replies)
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?), but the kill switch will absolutely remove all that stuff, and never show it in future. That's unambiguous.
Sounds like they will be opt in, not opt out
No, go deeper into that mastodon thread.
The dev has a really hinky defention of "opt-in" thats basically "yes we push all this on by default and realize it will be the norm for most of our users because of that, but you technically dont have to interact with it so thats opt-in."
Somehow, eventually having a buried menu option that "opts out" of AI is also part of how it will be opt-in as well? Its a self serving mess of rationaliztions and doublethink, no matter the claim on the tin.
load more comments
(5 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Is there nobody with sanity left? This has blown up so much the user base clearly does not want it. Focus your efforts elsewhere. You gain marketshare by putting users first. Also fuck markets.
If all Firefox users donated to Mozilla it could work. Alas, we don't.
I probably would, if the organizational structure and its spending focus(es) weren't so fucked up. They have been spending insane amounts of money on bullshit like AI instead of core browser features, and their leadership has extremely high wages for something that should be a non-profit open source organization. And it has been like this for years at this point.
Their CEO makes more than I think CEOs should earn in general, but the rest of their executives earn relatively normal to low salaries for their roles and the sector.
Non-profit doesn't mean everyone works for free.
Well to be fair they only had that or onlyfans to get paid to sit there playing with themselves.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(8 replies)
A very vocal portion of the user base, but we don't actually know what absolute portion cares. I'm personally unlikely to use possible AI features outside translation, but Mozilla has generally done enough that I don't feel particularly worried they're going to mess with my privacy or force me to use a feature I don't want.
They could do a survey amongst Firefox users about what they want.
But if the result is anti-AI they can't claim anymore that they weren't aware of their users opinions.
The issue is that there aren't many of us Firefox users left, so asking us while FF wants to get NEW users to expand the market share (which is badly needed, so they do not lose their seat at the table regarding web standards, and to make them less dependent on googles payments) is not helpful at all.
As long as i can switch it off with one click, i couldn't care less and will continue using FF, but as you can see many existing users will bitch and moan even if it's just one click.
so asking us while FF wants to get NEW users
This is a balancing act and Mozilla behaves like an elefant in a porcelain shop right now. Worst case they loose their current users without attracting new ones.
existing users will bitch and moan even if it's just one click
I'm one of them. Why not make it one click for people who want it instead?
load more comments
(4 replies)
We need valve but for browsers.
Funny. That's exactly what Mozilla used to be.
load more comments
(6 replies)
Does anyone even talk about what the “AI features” are?
Could I, liked recolor webpages? Automate ublock filters? Detect SEO/AI slop? Create a price/feature table out of a shopping page?
See, this would all be neat like auto translate is neat.
But I’m not really interested in the 7 millionth barebones chatbot UI. I’m not interested in loading a whole freaking LLM to auto name my tabs, or in some cutsie auto navigation agent experiment that still only works like 20% of the time with a 600B LLM, or a shopping chatbot that doesn’t do anything like Amazon/Perplexity.
That’s the weird thing about all this. I’m not against neat features, but “AI!” is not a feature, and everyone is right to assume it will be some spam because that’s what 99% of everything AI is. But it’s like every CEO on Earth has caught the same virus and think a product with “AI” in the name is like a holy grail, regardless of functionality.
Right right. If they had real innovation, they would have defined it clearly as you suggested. But they didn't, so they don't. It's all snake oil, again, because that's the entire AI industry.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You reminded me that one use for AI I'd really like is removing all photos of Trump, Musk and Putin from my screen. Another is filtering the twenty reposts of every event in US politics and the incessant whining about prices. Alas, I need these in phone apps more than the browser.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
I have a better kill switch: Waterfox and LibreWolf. Don't have to worry about of that nonsense right out the gate.
Zen has also committed to not include AI features
I jumped to LibreWolf this week. Really like it, it looks acat and feels the same. But I trust it more. Been a FF user for over 10 years.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Not buying it. Kill switch will migrate further and further into about:config until it eventually too goes away without notice in an update six months from now.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Thats nice mozilla.
Installed and set up Librewolf yesterday. Absolutely recommend to everyone.
Yes. LibreWolf ships correctly configured, no switches needed.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I hope people don't buy the story that the kill switch was part of the plan all along.
This is clearly the result of mozilla scrambling for a compromise after the backlash to their recent announcement.
As far as i know, in the original interview that started this whole drama the new ceo mentioned that it would always be a choice and people would have the choice to opt out. All of this AI browser drama has been blown out of proportion by a very loud minority.
"Opt-out" means on by default. Installed alongside the parts that you use, and quite possibly embedded into the thing so thoroughly that the next automatic update or feature iteration will either switch it back on or remove the option entirely.
LLMs are controversial to say the least, and accomodation to those who are repulsed by their inclusion should not take the form of an option they need to jump through hoops to turn off.
Leaving them in but saying they can be turned off is like shipping pornography in your video game with a filter someone in the options you can enable. It's a pain in the ass at the least, and means that anyone making a moral or ethical stand against its inclusion has no choice but to go elsewhere.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
In their defense, Mozilla doesn't have their own source of income, they heavily depend on search sponsorships. Jumping onto the AI train is one way to keep afloat for now
How does AI actually improve their financial position? Who pays them to use AI?
Probably whoever becomes the default provider for this new function. Like Google pays to be the default search provider.
The technical information is scarce but I very much doubt Mozilla is going to train and deploy their own model. It's more likely you will get a free tier access to one of the popular commercial offerings - Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic ... whoever pays for it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I don't really know what an 'ai browser' is and at this point I feel like i really need to ask. What makes a browser "AI"?
load more comments
(3 replies)
They must've noticed people fleeing in droves to librewolf or floorp.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Firefox is no longer trusted. Fuck that AI bullshit. We don't want it, we don't need it, and they don't care.
You can also disable ai via toggling browser.ml.enable to false on about:config. For now at least...
load more comments
(6 replies)
The reason the "kill-switch" wasn't made clear originally was because it literally didn't exist until users very vocally tool them where to shove their AI crap.
It was added on afterwards.
Firefox has had one hidden away in about:config since they started adding AI. Are they going to put it in the settings page now?
view more: next ›