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.

[ogre_bones]

I'm not as short-sighted as you are and I'm not interested in turning it off. I'll just use something else, period. 

You can go use your copypasta on somebody else. Maybe you'll have better luck.

[ogre_bones]

Generative AI is theft at best and bad for society at large. This is the one thing that will make me quit Firefox.

[Peanuckle]

If I want AI I will go to a website. If I want it local I will download a program specifically for it. I want neither and avoid both. 

[jones183629]

Thanks for giving options.

I will say, however, AI right now is a privacy nightmare. Privacy, security, and AI do not go together. That is why firefox users don't want it anywhere near their browser. We are looking for privacy, security, and performance.

Please keep doing what Firefox does best. Don't chase the AI dream. 

[ogre_bones]

How do I stop getting updates on this? Y'all clearly are not reading the room and don't care because you've got dollar signs in your eyes and I don't want to hear more people tell you that you're wrong over and over and over again while you continue to ignore it and do whatever you're going to do anyway.

[joga]

I really do not want AI in Firefox. At all. 

[devsfan1830]

I don't want AI in my **bleep**ing browser. You were supposed to be better than Google/Microsoft, with privacy in mind. Anything that uses AI CANNOT be privacy oriented. It is a system trained on data provided to it, most of which is data gather w/o anyone's knowledge. If you feel you MUST, then it needs to be off by default and users who choose to leave it off need to be RESPECTED. That means, maybe you give us ONE prompt to choose and those who choose off should never see ANYTHING that even so much as looks like an advertisement to turn it on. I would however prefer you don't chase the hype. We are already being force fed AI services, I just want to browse the web MYSELF.

[zaivala]

No!!! Hell no!!! I've been using Mozilla since Netscape Navigator. I will use something else if you force AI on me.

[Simikiel]

I saw someone else say this:

"Try Librewolf. It's a privacy focused Firefox fork, everything that works for Firefox works with it. There's no integrated ads, no ai, and no bells and whistles beyond being a browser."

[TMoz]

If Mozilla is determined to waste money on something no one is asking for, at least make it opt in. Every time my browser harasses me with some new AI harassment when I open the browser, it makes me close the browser. I don't need AI acting like some clingy ex who can't take 'no' for an answer. It doesn't matter how you phrase the question, I am uninterested in having some over eager machine bothering me every time I want to open a new tab.

Throw money at it if you must, but stop making me pay for your bad decisions with a progressively less useful browser.

[Santacos2552]

Please give us two browsers then, one with AI and one without. I do not want AI anything. I have absolutely ZERO use for it, I enjoy doing things manually. I don't like having to disable options, knowing it's still lurking in the code somewhere. I left Chrome for Firefox (after doing the opposite a decade ago) because Firefox seems to be a lot more consumer focused. I hope they take the feedback and strongly consider it, because I am tired of swapping browsers. 

[Olaf-Z]

Just don't. I want a nice and fast web browser that does its job: web browsing. And nothing more.

I see a future where Firefox clones are a thing. Again.

[RipleyRiley]

I have zero interest in AI. I don't want it in my browser. Please, I am asking you respectfully to not start clumsily inserting AI into places it has no business being, like Firefox.

[KingHotDog]

Mozilla, stop trying to make AI happen! it's not going to happen! No one wants useless, extra bloat.

Please don't ruin your browser chasing dumb tech trends. AI doesn't need to be integrated into everything. I would ditch Firefox just as quickly as I did Chrome for another browser that doesn't force this garbage on me.

[noxypaws]

Please stop. Just, please, I'm begging you, drop all (yes, ALL) of the AI stuff and focus on the core functionality of the browser.

Nothing of value will be left behind. Your users will sing your praises for correcting course. You may even win some folks over from Chrome and Chrome-based browsers.

Just please stop the AI stuff. Completely.

[Simikiel]

I don't want AI in Firefox. I want Firefox to be Firefox. Don't make the mistake of trying to shift to an AI first stance. All I need is a fast browser that doesn't crash. All AI does is add bloat, and takes focus away from where it should be. On building the best browser.

[mcc]

I've commented on Mozilla threads about this before but:

• I don't want AI in my browser.
• I don't want a browser that has the option of enabling AI.
• I don't want the code that connects to or locally executes the AI to even be present on my computer¹.
• I don't want to use a browser created by an organization which also sells or uses AI products. If you are an AI company I don't want to support you, I don't want to give you the benefit of additional market share.
• If someone else is using a browser with AI features, I'd prefer to block them from being able to access websites I control. If it is possible a "summarizer", "AI preview", or chatbot might be processing the text from my web page, I'd prefer that user not be able to access my web page at all.

I'm currently using Firefox. I'm using the Debian version which tosses out your worst features, and I'm using ESR so I at least get to delay your new harmful features as long as possible. Someday, Servo will become usable for general web use, and then I switch to that and I never come back. #NoAI or nothing

¹ I actually did switch from Windows to Linux just to achieve this. And I do not like Linux.

[shahzmaalif]

No thank u, all I want is a fast browser, that doesn’t crash, supports uBlock Origin and that’s it. I have no use for ai here

[ccombs]

Please remove all AI features from Firefox

[blemoine]

No one wants this.

[kailey]

Welp, looks like I'm done using Firefox. I don't want to touch your AI slop with a fifty foot pole.

[Jragghen]

Please no. Just .... No.

[kkslidermight]

for-profit corporations literally cannot resist AI. it's simply not possible for them to do so. they're like the sharks in finding nemo when they smell blood. 

[No_AI_InFirefox]

Why on **bleep**ing earth would I need my internet browser to include an AI chatbot? Every website already has one and they're all useless; we don't need you wasting space on our hard drives with software none of your users want. And ChatGPT has already won the AI race by a mile; nobody who does want to use AI is going to choose the Firefox AI Window to do it.

There are dozens of other browsers out there that offer nearly everything Firefox does and don't feel the need to cram an unwanted digital sycophant into their program. Get rid of it or we will get rid of you. 

[Lynchzor]

What a waste of development time, not looking for these features. If this is the roadmap I'm moving to Librewolf. Today it's opt-in, tomorrow it's integrated into basic features and impossible to remove, this is evident in the statement: "We will soon provide additional settings for you to control how AI is used (or not) in Firefox." Not soon enough, is opt-in meaning 'you dont have to use it but it's there?' no need to answer if I see it, I'm out.

[Bibliofowl]

How about just make it so these features have to be turned on by the user and, beyond a single pop up when it is first available, never bother the user with suggestions to turn it on again? It's really **bleep**ty when things are turned on automatically and the user has to turn them off when they likely didn't want it in the first place. 

[lilly_bat]

We don't need AI in our browser. If I need some sort of AI chatbot I will log to their website and then close it once i'm done. That's all the required functionality for the browser 

[ButtSack]

No one who uses Firefox wants any AI bull**bleep** included with it. I use Firefox because its fast, secure, and supports Ublock Origin. AI has become a tacked on buzzword that is overused and underdeveloped. Let Google have their dog**bleep** AI response thats wrong for most things you search. Mozilla should not jump on this bandwagon.

[spxlabs]

I literally created an account to beg and plea that AI is not included in the browser.

every website already has “AI” and now there will be competing agents on the same website and god knows what else.

please no.  Please don’t do this.  This will be the first time in over 10 years that i have actually disagree with Mozilla.

[wowzer123]

Keep. Mozzilla. Simple.

[CupaCoolWatah]

I feel the need to join the many voices stating dissatisfaction.

We do not want this.
We do not want more AI shoved into things.
We do not want more bloat in our software.
We do not want more disruptive features added in that require disabling.

Please, stop adding AI into FireFox.
Please, remove what's already been implemented.

It's a poison.

[burtnay]

I feel your time would be better spent digging a hole, filling it with money, and lighting it on fire. 

[widders]

stop wasting time making this stuff. this is bad, this really sucks, i do not want to see this. i would strongly prefer this was removed entirely.

[DFNPLP]

AI features in a browser respresent a significantly increased attack surface. Even if it's disabled, the features being present when a user has chosen not to opt in is problematic. Because AI features would likely have some control over the browser, if an attacker can find a vulnerability there, even if the user has disabled the features, then an attacker could gain control over the browser, and the user's credentials, accounts, etc. Not that any application is free of security risk, but adding these features to the base browser rather than having them as an extension that users can opt to download (and therefore choose to assume the additional risk themselves) is a mistake. It's akin to leaving a default administrator account enabled when you don't need it. Should somone be able to access it? No. Will someone? Give it time.

[Oraistesu]

How about official support to disable all AI-integration from Google and other visited sites? That's what people actually want. Please don't latch on to this ridiculous trend. People hate it, and it just comes across as pathetic and desperate.

[DecoyDante]

It is infuriating to have switched to Firefox after Chrome's endless nonsensical debacles, only to encounter Mozilla blindly following the same trends for inexplicable reasons.

The only reason I could imagine you're going down this route is to secure investment from AI tech bros which are the exact sort of people shredding the internet to pieces.

I know full well that you sat in a room/on a call and discussed how much backlash you'd be willing to take for this decision. I have no doubts that you're fully aware you would alienate your users who exist entirely to avoid the idiocy across the rest of the net...but the thing I'm truly confused by is that none of you stopped to say "Wait, why are we choosing to abandon ethics and make our users irate?"

I'd love to know the answer, but I suspect we'll be treated to nothing more than evasive marketing speak.

[deadlysodium]

This is an absolute garbage idea.  Nobody wants or likes AI except corporations that want to skimp on pay.  What a terrible business decision from a company that was the ONLY option outside of Google for better privacy.  I really hope someone makes a new non-chromium based browser to compete with this bull**bleep**.

[chronohart]

STOP. THIS.

We do not want AI in our browser! How much more clear can we get??? If you *must* put AI in, *at least* make it default to *fully disabled* and with no exposure in the UI without enabling access in settings first. "We will soon provide additional settings for you to control how AI is used". This should have been step ONE! Add the settings so users can enable it (because it must be disabled by default), *then* add the features.

Or, again, JUST STOP!

[Swift]

Please stop (ideally reverse course). As a broadly happy FF user of over a decade, your pursuit of AI caused me to investigate alternatives, and more recently make the move to AI-free forks.

I'm pleading with you to understand that your specific demographic is people who do not want spyware or inefficient and unreliable tech built into software they use all day every day. You're actively driving away your primary userbase. As the only even vaguely realistic alternative to Chrome, this is miserable to watch unfold. 

[gcentenocastro]

As someone who has been using the browser and Thunderbird for more than 20 years across multiple devices, this will be enough to go to another alternative. I understand the position and why, but the majority of people who do not want any AI features. The recent update to iOS have actually impacted the performance of the browser to levels I have never seen in the app. PLEASE! PLEASE! Do not implement this