Building AI the Firefox way: Shaping what’s next together

[Jolie]

Hi everyone,

We recently shared how we’re approaching AI in Firefox with user choice and openness at the center of everything we build. We’ve heard from many of you who’d prefer not to have AI in your browser at all, and we get it: We will soon provide additional settings for you to control how AI is used (or not) in Firefox.

Nonetheless, standing still while technology moves forward doesn’t benefit the web or the people who use it. That’s why we see it as our responsibility to shape how AI integrates into the web, in ways that promote openness, transparency, and choice. That way, users and developers can use it freely, help shape it, and truly benefit from it.

You’ve already seen this approach in some of our latest features:
💬 AI Chatbot in the sidebar – Access your preferred chat assistant without switching tabs.
📱 Shake to Summarize on iOS – Quickly summarize pages and stay focused on what matters.

Now we’re working on something new, and we’d love your input.

What is AI Window?

AI Window is an intelligent space we’re building that lets you chat with an AI assistant and get help while you browse, all on your terms.

✅ Completely opt-in: You decide if and when to use it.
🔄 Model flexibility: Pick the AI model that best fits your needs.
⚙️ Full control: Easily toggle it on or off anytime.

Help us shape the future

We’re still early in development and want your feedback. Starting today, you can sign up to receive updates.

[forestine]

People like(d) Firefox because it was the alternative to these other corporate browsers shoving stuff down our throats that we didn't ask for. Instead of listening to feedback, you're adding more and more unwanted features to the browser which require advanced knowledge to disable. And it's like playing whack-a-mole with every update when there is YET ANOTHER AI "feature". Please stop wasting resources on a race to the bottom and add an easy way for anyone to turn off every AI feature in perpetuity. People don't want this.

[eheil]

You could improve AI in Firefox by shoving it where the sun don't shine.  We do not want it.  We do not trust it.  We do not like it.  I hate the fact that every time I install Firefox I have to dig through about:config to root out a dozen settings to truly banish this garbage from my browser.  I've been using Firefox for literal decades and adding ML to the browser is the only thing that has made me consider ditching it permanently.  It is the biggest breach of trust in a long series of breaches of trust.

[mudo]

"We can't stand still" said the lemmings heading to the cliff. You're not being asked to "stand still", but to stop running in the wrong direction and head somewhere more productive.

[jepyang]

no. none of this.

don’t want ai, at all. don’t want it toggleable, don’t want it opt-in, don’t want it sandboxed. i want it completely absent. period.

be a tech leader by leading the way to an AI-free future.

[shgw]

This sounds as thrillingly exciting as the time that Firefox joined the blockchain and, though I've no clear idea what an "intelligent space" is, I've heard them mentioned often before, usually in 8am marketing meetings, since around 1998, so it would be nice if one ever existed.

All the same, I've lived long enough to recognise urgent pointlessness when I have to read about it, and this smells of something similar. Especially when, as you admit, you're pouring time and resources into your "intelligent space" (what was wrong with "smart hole"?) before you've put in proper controls for the regurgitatory tools you've shoe-horned in already.  Much as I enjoy playing whack-a-mole in config, I regretfully doubt that everyone else will be as bored or indulgent as I am.

The pointlessness is, I hope, obvious. There are plenty of AI portals already discoverable through the browser, which is largely the point of a browser, and if we wanted to "stay focused on what matters" we wouldn't be using one anyhow. The urgency is less clear. If you were a profit-making corporation, devoted to enriching your shareholders, then you'd have to keep up with the competition, and if they added another button to their remote-control, or put another lamp in their fridge, you'd be well advised to add two. But you're not, and a web-browser isn't a fridge, it's a gateway to a universe of nonsense. And that, in itself, is the point I'm trying to make. You make the gateway, not the nonsense and, though you're not wholly inexperienced in the latter as your post nicely shows, it's not really your strong point. Some of you, even now, are still doing some good and useful work, and it would be charming, if admittedly quaint, if you simply continued to do it.

[TheVHSWizard]

Quick unrelated story... I used to love getting food from Subway (the sandwich place).  Their subs were great, exactly what I wanted.  But then Quiznos came around with their *toasted* subs, which introduced a choice into the market... I could choose toasted (but kind of terrible) subs and go to Quiznos, or I could choose non-toasted (but overall much better) subs and go to Subway.

And that's where it should have ended, right?  I am making my choice, I am going to Subway, Subway has the sandwich type and quality I want, so that's my choice.  But no, it was not enough for Subway that a majority of people were still choosing them, they couldn't stand the thought that there was a new market space that they were not also a part of, and rather than just existing parallel to the "toasted" sub market, Subway tried to turn into a *toasted* sub place too?  And in order to do this, they started cutting a lot more corners on all the rest of their stuff... toppings disappeared, choices were limited, bread types were discontinued - in order to streamline making their subs toasted.  And then, they started aggressively pushing the TOASTED subs on everybody.  On multiple occasions, I had to shout at the subway employees asking them to please NOT put my sub in the toaster, I did not ask for it to be toasted, they just sort of assumed everybody wanted toasted subs and you had to scream at full volume to snap them out of their toasted sub trance.

Well, this entire process alienated me to Subway.  I didn't like Toasted subs, I felt like I had already VERY CLEARLY MADE MY CHOICE when I went to Subway instead of Quiznos, and their insistence on aping all the worst parts of their competitors in order to "complete" with them felt like a betrayal of my trust, and I got to a point where I stopped going to Subway entirely.  And I'm not saying it's wrong to like Toasted Subs, though I personally think they're kind of vile, I'm just saying if I have already chosen the not-toasted-subs guys, them trying to force me to like toasted subs is a very quick way to completely piss me, the sub buyer, off.

No reason to tell this story, definitely nothing applicable to the article here, just... and old man yelling at clouds, really.

[Owlbear]

Another "no AI, please" opinion from me.
This is not something people need in a browser.
And the potential for environmental harm inherent in the casual use of data centre resident models is startling.

[loiclac]

While I use LLM on a daily basis, I use it voluntarily. I like that I can choose any LLM, AI service, by just going on their website. I do not want a pre-selection of badly integrated tools in Firefox. Using a web browser to actually browse the web and access AI tools is fine. Keep on doing a good browser and cut away the AI crap.
Sorry mates, but other than being deeply annoying, I do not see any point in adding AI tooling integration into Firefox.

[arxphire]

Then you know how powerful LLM's can be... so why not make it possible to have local LLM's? Or ability to use non-VC-funded LLM's? I do not think regular browsing will stick around much longer as we all move towards agentic use. I am more scared we will have no open source options because we can only see the big trees infront of the forrest. If we didn't have Linus all those years ago we would not have an alternate way of using a PC. 

[MikeTaylor]

(BSD would like a word.)

[arxphire]

Yes, but I think you got my point 😉

[Gilgwath]

You were supposed to bring balance to the web! Not join them! Just focus on making a good and privacy focused browser, like you used to. The fact that other browser makers even advertise with "we are the privacy browser" shows how much you lost your way. We've been yelling at you for years and yet you've been reliably putting your foot in every muddy puddle you could find. My patients is wearing thin. I've been using Firefox and Thunderbird for 20 years, my whole family and many friends use these, because it's my pick. Every techy you lose, takes his whole social circle whith them.

[rpetti]

If you are going to waste resources on this, at least make it a completely separate extension that must be manually installed by users. People do not want this built into a browser and enabled by default with 12+ hidden config flags just to turn it all off.

I value a browser that does what it needs to do and nothing more. If I wanted more features, I can install extensions to opt-in to the additional bloat.

[leonixyz]

An integrated AI assistant? for what? I don't think I will ever need it

[advpod]

I do not understand why Mozilla's limited resources are being wasted on AI features the community is so clearly against. 

[stevelosh]

Please do not do this, just be a web browser.

[agluszak]

I don't want AI in my browser. I want my browser to be fast.

[roseng]

Start actually implementing features that make your browser more usable. If I wanted some AI window thing I might like, idk, a floorp-esque sidebar where I can set what websites open in it and thus have it at easy access, or an extension that does that. Instead you integrate it into the browser? The "toggle it on or off anytime" sure sounds a lot like "it will stay installed under the hood whether you want it or not", and equating the ability to simply not open the window with the feature being 'opt-in' is so ridiculously disingenuous that it would be hilarious if I didn't actually use your browser. This is actively the main reason I am not supporting mozilla at this time.

[reese-ovine]

As a deaf person, the only reason I'd want LLMs in my web browser is for automatic captioning of videos and sounds. I think the technology can be beneficial for accessibility uses (when a human can't/won't do the work), but anything else just gets in the way.

[roseng]

I do agree that the technology has applications for accessibility, though on another level i think this idea of AI is lumping together a lot of disparate technologies; I'll gladly say image recognition and captioning is useful, but there's this distinct push all of a sudden to say no, this isn't just machine learning image recognition, it's (sparkle emoji) AI. Everything from basic algorithms that we've had since forever, to machine learning, and other things, get lumped under this idea of AI. And so it feels less like a technological distinction, to me, and more like a political idea. You say AI because you want investors to like you, not because you think it describes your software the best; et cetera.

[nativeit]

I think it’s tragic that providing accessible features requires making the entire planet less accessible. Hope you continue to find enriching solutions, either way. 

[scrottie]

Hey for years, logging in to the credit union has crashed the browser. Memory usage is obscene. I control-C the thing over and over all day. When it starts garbage collecting, the computer becomes unusable for a long time. I've got a running gag of posting words that everyone knows, except Mozilla's UK dictionary. I hit words it thinks are misspelled but are correct, on a daily basis. I'm constantly forgetting that I need to shift-control-P to paste text without it wrecking my document. I'm writing slightly more than one paper a day and really don't have time for that. If that were somehow smart enough to use the local styles instead of injecting foreign styles in to the document, maybe it would be useful, but as it is, it's a disaster. I started using pandoc and a plain text editor for writing and it's vastly better than word processors, but the best feature is it ignoring these foreign styles when I go to paste text. The URL bar on a new install is a disaster. You've successfully re-created AOL keywords.

"want your feedback" -- fire every manager there, especially the CEO.  Let programmers fix all of this broken stuff and stop forcing bad management decisions on them.  I've been in tech a long time.  I've been using this browser since it was Mosaic.  I've seen a lot of tech companies hire management that captains their Titanic directly in to the nearest iceberg and right now, that is you.  What we did to Brandon needs to happen to the current CEO.

[mathilda]

EDIT: duplicate

[theothertom]

✅Completely opt-in: You decide if and when to use it.
🔄 Model flexibility: Pick the AI model that best fits your needs.
⚙️Full control: Easily toggle it on or off anytime.

This seems totally different from the current approach of "fill the browser with AI rubbish, and re-enable it on every update regardless of user preference". Regardless of the feedback here, I assume Mozilla intend to double-down on their current path of alienating the few users they have left.

I do not want "model flexibility", I want any AI stuff to be a separate addon that people can install if they want (if it must be there at all). 

I'm now supporting Servo in the hope that the project can eventually create a browser that respects its users.

[Steeltent]

Sounds good. Not sure I'm going to use this but I'm happy it's there. 

I'm AI sceptic but I'm also sure that nobody is rolling back the clock on this. 

Out in the real world every person I talk to is using AI, so please don't be discouraged by a, admittedly very loud, minority of users. 

We are not forced to use this, so I really don't see the issue.  

[johnkizer]

Makes the decision to support Ladybird (for alternative engines) and Vivaldi (for an ethical, user-focused browser) easier.

[Spookytoes]

Adding to the pile: No one wants this.

Okay, you have to have "AI" to point to when clueless C-Suite types look at Firefox as an alternative. Or to appease donors. We get it.

But as other have said, waste as little developer time on it as possible, and make it a choice that's easy to disable. We shouldn't have to dig through about:config for the settings. Opera also added AI agents to their sidebar... they can be turned off easily.

[Blubb55]

Let me just quote the official announcement:

"Regardless of your choice, with Firefox, you’re in control. "

That phrase was repeated countless times already, and wasn't always true. So this time, make it right, stand by it and listen to your community.

I've been using Firefox before it was called Firefox, and using Nightly since it was called "Minefield". So rest assured, I do like having new and also sometimes buggy features. I like to test, I like to tinker. I actually do use AI, but for certain, in its own capsulated tasks. But integrating AI into a browser gives (some, more or less, depending on the level of integration) control to AI, and not the users (otherwise it wouldn't be an assistant, right?). So with that statement alone, AI cannot be integrated into firefox.

Just read news articles, and be slightly informed in the tech industry - "AI" gets strapped on *everything* (be it AI keyboards or even AI computer cases), just to use that buzzword. Especially with the circular investment between Nvidia, openAI, google, intel, AMD and so on, everyone with a basic understanding of markets is seeing parallels to past bubbles. 

tl,dr: while chromium is the new Internet Explorer, stay the one and only true alternative and don't become a mindless copy. Don't chase everything you see on the news blindly, and trust your community. You won't always make everyone happy, but just looking through the comments I couldn't see a single (!) comment saying "more AI in my firefox? yay, keep it comin!"

to make it even more clear: no AI, remove it completely, and if you really must invest some money into AI, make it optional addons. I mean, you're already quite familiar and experience to move core and built in features to external addons...

[antonyh]

I don't want or need AI in a browser. I want and need a fast, effective browser that I can trust not to leak information. It doesn't need any form of conversational or generative AI and it doesn't matter that it's opt-in - it shouldn't be present in the first place. At best this is a plugin/extension, optional to those who want it. I said much the same when you added Pocket and look how that ended, so please stop waiting time and resources on this and get back to the core business of making the best possible browser that is pure in both intent and implementation.

[arxphire]

I am positive but cautious about adding AI capabilities. I think the agentic approach is needed similar to how a search engine was before/still are. Being able to add your own local AI will be of upmost importance for the privacy crowd that probably is your biggest user base today. I do not think it will be possible to not use an AI in the future though.. so I think it is good to be on that train or the adoption of FF will drop to 0 eventually. It has to be done the right way though. The web is changing an FF need to change with it.

[roseng]

No, actually. 'AI' is a political concept that lumps together a bunch of disparate technologies under the ideological banner of a Vibes-Based Tech Fad that investors like and everyone else hates. it is not going to be critical to the future of the internet, and has actively been a massive and unequivocal detriment to everyone hosting their own sites or resources.

[arxphire]

I can see that you obviously have not tried AI and seen the potential. If you did, you would not talk like that. Personally I think it is important the open source world have alternatives to the VC funded solutions. I do use AI for certain stuff and it saves enormous time.. which is why I know things will change. We (all) will be using agents eventually to do stuff for us... and if we do not have good solutions we will use those who are available.

[Baralheia]

I've tried multiple flavors of generative AI. Every single time I have been disappointed. I can recognize the value in some forms of machine learning, like image/pattern recognition, but the slop generators (LLMs and other transformer models) have shown me absolutely *zero* promise and I find them to be anything but trustworthy. They are actively wrecking the Internet and humanity's access to real, truthful information. 

[arxphire]

Yes, I can agree that we live in a post truth society nowadays.. not only because of AI but also politics that do not care for it and invent their own truths. Which is why taking part of this technology and participating is of up most importants. It will come no matter what we think.. the only thing is if we are to trust the VC AI or if we make our own.. 

[Baralheia]

What I'm trying to get at here is generative AI is flawed at a very base level. It's designed to predict and output the most likely sequence of words, but it has zero capability for intelligence or reason. Continuing to use this tech only makes the tech overlords think that we find it useful and bolsters their case for shoving it into every facet of our lives.

The only rational and ethical thing to do is to simply not use them. If users aren't using the tech, then the companies making it can't justify the use case to the money men (because it's still all vc funding right now, none of these things makes money). Starve the hydra.

[arxphire]

I think we are past that.. the pandora box is open so to speak.. for both good and bad. Like fire, it can be used give us warmth but it can also be devastating.

The prediction in LLM's, while not perfect, is good enough.. as pretty much all technology. If we give up or wait too long, the big VC will win. We have to do like Linus and make our own kernel. Without an alternative people will use what is offered.

[Kinetix242]

Oh dear god. "It's being forced on us so you can either fight it or lube up and enjoy." Come on, you sound like an industry apologist or shill.

If certain governments weren't so completely useless in obvious simple regulations (enforcing copyright, anyone?), most of this nonsense would go away in a heartbeat. Environmental protections? Hello?

[arxphire]

No, what I want is an alternative.. so that we dont have to use the lube in the future... Which is what will happen if no alternative comes along.

If you can make a straw man, I can too. You sound like the crowd who want to keep fossil fueled cars. Just because you are used to it doesn't mean it is good.

[arxphire]

Could add that I have been using Linux since 2001 and Mozilla/Netscape longer than so... I was also Google free for a time. I want to be in control. I just have an pragmatic approach to this and can see the benefit. If it is done right.

[MikeTaylor]

Why are you doing this? No-one wants it. How about a bit of leadership, instead of mindlessly following that AI-shareholder shills are telling everyone to do? I used to expect better from Mozilla.