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Firefox Announces 'AI Controls' To Block Its Upcoming AI Features (mozilla.org) 36

Posted by EditorDavid from the building-blocks dept.
The Mozilla executive in charge of Firefox says that while some people just want AI tools that are genuinely useful, "We've heard from many who want nothing to do with AI..."

"Listening to our community, alongside our ongoing commitment to offer choice, led us to build AI controls." Starting with Firefox 148, which rolls out on Feb. 24, you'll find a new AI controls section within the desktop browser settings. It provides a single place to block current and future generative AI features in Firefox... This lets you use Firefox without AI while we continue to build AI features for those who want them...

At launch, AI controls let you manage these features individually:

— Translations, which help you browse the web in your preferred language.
— Alt text in PDFs, which add accessibility descriptions to images in PDF pages.
— AI-enhanced tab grouping, which suggests related tabs and group names.
— Link previews, which show key points before you open a link.
— AI chatbot in the sidebar, which lets you use your chosen chatbot as you browse, including options like Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Le Chat Mistral.

You can choose to use some of these and not others. If you don't want to use AI features from Firefox at all, you can turn on the Block AI enhancements toggle. When it's toggled on, you won't see pop-ups or reminders to use existing or upcoming AI features. Once you set your AI preferences in Firefox, they stay in place across updates... We believe choice is more important than ever as AI becomes a part of people's browsing experiences. What matters to us is giving people control, no matter how they feel about AI.

If you'd like to try AI controls early, they'll be available first in Firefox Nightly.
Some context from The Register It's a refreshingly unsubtle stance, and one that lands just days after a similar bout of AI skepticism elsewhere in browser land, with Vivaldi's latest release leaning away from generative features entirely. CEO Jon von Tetzchner summed up the mood, telling The Register: "Basically, what we are finding is that people hate AI..." Mozilla's kill switch isn't the end of AI in browsers, but it does suggest the hype has met resistance.
When it comes to AI kill switches in browsers, Jack Wallen writes at ZDNet that "Most browsers already offer this feature. With Edge, you can disable Copilot. With Chrome, you can disable Gemini. With Opera, you can disable Aria...."
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Firefox Announces 'AI Controls' To Block Its Upcoming AI Features More

Firefox Announces 'AI Controls' To Block Its Upcoming AI Features

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  • I already blocked updates and managed to stop the update nagging after the AI features were announced, I'm not undoing that.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 )

      I already blocked updates and managed to stop the update nagging after the AI features were announced, I'm not undoing that.

      The malware vendors of the world thank you for your service.

      • You mean the advertising companies? Let's be real... if anyone cared about security, web browsers wouldn't exist.

        I'm old enough to remember the hell that was Microsoft ActiveX, and even the FOSS browsers of that day did stupid things as security wasn't even remotely considered from the start.

        • You mean the advertising companies?

          No. And you know it.

          Let's be real... if anyone cared about security, web browsers wouldn't exist.

          By that logic, if anyone cared about murder, all humans would be isolated, with method of interaction. There's a difference between absolute, impenetrable security that hinders any possible functionality and someone who disables updates on his most client application because they don't like want AI in their peanut-butter. Firefox updates don't (typically) contain anything to do with the advertising industry, but they sure as well patch known exploits.

          I'm old enough to remember the hell that was Microsoft ActiveX, and even the FOSS browsers of that day did stupid things as security wasn't even remotely considered from the start.

          I'm older than that, and therefore

    • Exactly why did you block updates (including security updates), instead of changing to Firefox ESR wich will not push a new version to you until aug 2026? That way you receive security updates, but no new features (including those AI features you so despise) until Aug 2026...

    • What's your problem with the AI features? There's nothing on a Firefox page that makes an AI feature apparent if you don't trigger them in a menu.

      The "translation" icon only shows up as an icon when you visit a page which declares a language out of your http-accept-languages settings (at which point you actually need a translation). There is also a "ask a chatbot" option in the right click menu, and it's doing nothing if you don't you configure account at a chatbot of your choice.

      I really don't understand w

      • Because were sick of all the resources being thrown at stupid frigging chatbots that should be being thrown at making better and cheaper technology.

        I cant afford to upgrade the ram on my PC right now because Sam "fucking" Altman put an order for literally half the worlds Ram supplies for 2026 for ChatGPT servers. And my boss keeps talking about replacing us with AI. You bet I want nothing to do with this.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by allo ( 1728082 )

          Who believes that RAM got expensive because of AI also believes that people got laid off because of AI. Don't buy every excuse.

  • if only (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If only firefox would concentrate on making their actual browser engine fast, correct, low-mem, and bug-free.

    Instead they keep adding on random crap nobody wants. And then getting rid of it years later when they figure out nobody wanted it.

    Clearly the wrong people have been steering the ship for years. Things would have been different under Brendan Eich. Such a shame how that went down and what has happened since.

  • Cause AI tab grouping seems legit. Currently using treestyle tabs and managing many tabs (hundred+).

    Some of that other stuff will probably get disabled here at home. IMO, you're a bit silly if you think that AI can't do anything useful.

  • You could already turn these off in Firefox with about:config entries, but this is a welcome addition to have the settings in an easier place for people (in "settings").

  • Finally! A new Firefox "feature" that I won't immediately want to disable, but... it's simply to help disable other new "features". Yay?

  • How about... make the AI as add-ons and people can choose to install them in their browser - but don't put "AI" into the main browser at all? That seems a lot more logical and less controversial.

  • Some don't want AI bloat! I'm shocked! (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @05:27PM (#65975042)
    So Mozilla ignored them, but added a fake dashboard to make users think they can turn things AI off! Because forcing out AI "features" is what the C-suite is getting paid for.

  • Keep your feature flags and settings. What we need is two versions of firefox - one with AI compiled in, one without.

  • The mobile version of Firefox still does not allow deleting/editing entries from history/bookmarks search results, so you can't get rid of a year old entry without finding it in history/bookmarks yourself.

  • > When it comes to AI kill switches in browsers, Jack Wallen writes at ZDNet that "Most browsers already offer this feature. With Edge, you can disable Copilot. With Chrome, you can disable Gemini. With Opera, you can disable Aria...."

    This is VERY misleading phrasing.
    Browsers like edge have an opt-out switch for their AI. Firefox' AI was opt-in from the start. Every feature either asks you or needs to be manually activated. They not even download the models before you click "I want AI generated page summ

  • Nothing wrong with AI tools. What's wrong is all these fascists trying to stuff them down our throats.

  • Firefox is just like Microsoft Windows: a struggle to keep some sense of privacy--against an overall current of privacy mitigation. Why not have the AI features off by default? Or better yet, why not have a separate, less bloated and bug-ridden version of Firefox--without AI?

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