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.

[slithica]

No, if you heard us you wouldn't include it at all and nobody would need to disable the "features".

[Simikiel]

Awesome! Now consider making AI be opt-in instead of opt-out. Thanks.

[LatexCritter]

So what is somewhat missing from this reply is what will the default be for this option? Will it be *off* be default like it should be or on be default? Off is the only one that really makes sense if you truly mean what you ysay about privacy and transparency.

[edem]

How about shoving it all in a downloadable plugin which is not bundled with the browser, and to opt-in, it would have to be manually downloaded and installed? Best way to opt-in, and you can even measure how many people actually download it. (Not me, I would love to not have it in my browser at all.)

[beatnikqueen]

Also privacy wise because if it's integrated we'd risk authorizing mining of our data and/or documents without realizing upon update.

[Dick_Nation]

Here's a better switch: switch your developers to doing something more productive and scuttle these AI features. Imagine how much more you could get done in line with your actual user base's needs and desires! Wow!

It's incredible how bad people are at making management decisions, given how many of them are that blindly simple.

[vincentj]

@Jolie  Turning it off is not good enough.  

Don't waste development resources building unwanted features. 

Instead, PLEASE just work on the top-voted ideas. 

If you want to build AI features, feel free to leave Mozilla and create an extension for people who want it.

[samyotix]

Good to hear, I might not have to switch to Vivaldi after all.

Can you also get rid of the other stupid bloat, like the useless button on the right that just pops up an ad (!) for your mobile browser?

[RentAChemist]

That's great to hear! It's concerning that wasn't a priority until now, though. Like Firefox is trying to trick us into using AI. Like the other companies forcing AI on us are. 

[drjigglebones]

Not quite the worst response possible, but it's close.

A better response would be a promise that the devs would collectively talk to Anthony about preventing any more dev time being wasted on garbage bloat no one wants.

The best response would be to collectively fire that idiotic new CEO and become employee-owned.

[Hawer]

just delete it all together, nobody wants it except for your very very slow management 

[Daenyx]

THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.  DO NOT MAKE PEOPLE OPT *OUT* OF THIS BULL**bleep**.  YOUR CORE USERBASE HATES IT.  QUIT WASTING MONEY AND ENERGY AND EVERYONE'S RAM ON **bleep** ALMOST NO ONE WANTS.

[edem]

…especially now that RAM prices are raising through the roof, thanks exactly to this technology.

[Archiewhite]

How about a switch to turn them on so the features are off by default?

[EffMozilla]

The fact that this has existed in about:config for months now and there is only talk about "actively working on a single, easy switch" because of the howling says just about everything I need to hear.

I'm not going to get hyperbolic and claim multitudes, but I would say that I am directly responsible for upwards of 50 individuals using Firefox instead of Chrome, and IE before that. I have begun uninstalling from all of my machines and have a new boring, nerdy thing to wheedle on about to family at Christmas gatherings.

This is one of the most staggeringly tone deaf developments I've seen in popular software in some time. At least Adobe had established a stranglehold when they switched to subscription only.

[MrBeefgnaw]

No, you don't "hear us" if all you're going to do is "work on" an easy way to opt out of garbage that should not be enabled by default to begin with, and in fact should not be part of a WEB BROWSER at all.

NOBODY. WANTS. AI. IN. THE. BROWSER. Read the room, FFS!

[kingdomfantasy6]

10/10 use of a quote to really visualize what's going.

Read it to non-techie roomie who nodded and went, "Yep. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeep."

[BenjaminGeer]

I don’t want AI in my web browser, or anywhere else in my life, at all, ever. And I think that most Firefox users probably feel the same way. In adding AI, you seem to be determined to lose the tiny fraction of users that are still loyal to Firefox.

[nuh]

I'm assuming the AI window refers to agentic browsing. Will it run on local models, or will we need to choose a third-party service like with the sidebar chatbot? I appreciate that Mozilla is offering these features, but I'd prefer an option to download and use local models, even if they are larger and slower

[nativeit]

Sounds like what you want is a browser that supports extensions, not an AI browser. 

[Janeishly]

"standing still while technology moves forward doesn’t benefit the web or the people who use it"

All of your users get this. But this technology is not moving forward. Have you actually used it for anything you truly understand? It doesn't work. It's sole purpose is to capture the attention of CEOs who know nothing of their actual business – or anyone else's – while burning the planet's already stretched resources.

Mozilla users do NOT want this stuff. And you'd gain far more users fleeing from other browsers if you were the only one not to be taken in by the hype.

[AmigaPete]

Absolutely not. I want a big off switch to disable absolutely all AI. Better would be for it to be completely disabled by default and opt-in only. Best of all would be good just not put ai in firefox at all.

[KittyDorkling]

I mean, if you want me to go and find another browser, AGAIN, I can.  I've done it before, after all!  I don't want AI in my browser, or my phone, or my games, or my search, or my **bleep** fridge.  Please do not implement it, I'm tired of having to delete previously useful services.

[nativeit]

Fully this. Their audience is by default people who are fully capable of casting off, as you say “AGAIN”, browsers that refuse to respect them. I’ve already downloaded Brave and Mullvad and started exploring my options. That was before this latest insult. Firefox is on vanishingly thin ice with a huge cohort of its users. They just need to wake up. 

[Who_Me]

I have been using Firefox for many years now. Because of it's privacy and how extentions like Ublock Origin still work. With the other browsers virtually sitting in the background watching everything you do. Where you are the product not the browser. Please devote your development efforts to making Firefox the best browser it can be and not chasing the latest fad. 

[mort2]

You used AI to write this, didn't you?

---

✅ 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.

---

Bullet-point list where the bullets are emoji and every point is on the form "Two Words: Some longer description" is an absolute dead give-away. Never seen a human do that, yet ChatGPT does it constantly.

[assimilateborg]

Is there a single option to chose at install which will not put all the AI features on my system? It would really be helpful. If I want your AI, I could still go to something like mozilla.ai to have all the bells and whistles. But I do not want it by default.

Thank you.

[Azuaron]

My input: don't. Just don't. Anyone who wants to use all the surveillance and AI nonsense is using some flavor of Chrome. You need to figure out how to be DIFFERENT from Chrome, not chase the same nonsense that Chrome chases.

And when you inevitably do this ANYWAY (because Mozilla has become an advertising company instead of a technology non-profit and refuses to listen to feedback), at least actually make this easy to nuke instead of hiding it behind five different settings in about:config. Heck, instead of integrating it directly into the browser, make it an add-on instead. It is, after all, not an integral part of the browsing experience, but an ADDITION to it.

I already said this earlier today, and I'm sure I'll say it again: I absolutely cannot WAIT for the AI bubble to burst. But, I would love for Mozilla to stop wasting time and money "investing" in the obvious bubble when you folks could be doing actually good and interesting things.

[pangolin]

For the love of God, STOP SHOVING "AI" INTO EVERYTHING. 

Like other commenters have suggested, if you absolutely must jump on this hype train that, it's becoming increasingly apparent, is speeding towards the edge of a cliff, give users an easily accessible option to turn all of it off, forever. 

[iDLe]

No. Do not want. I'll be turning off updates to Firefox.

It's not encouraging knowing that because AI is being forced on us by big tech companies, they haven't realised that they are going to make the web more insecure because people who don't want these features won't upgrade. My MacOS is 2 versions behind now.

It's getting to a point where I'm just going to go back to the Amiga. 

[palace261]

You may appreciate the LibreWolf fork of Firefox.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

A similar question https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1547944

About https://www.waterfox.net/support/ai-chatbot

About Waterfox

[iDLe]

Well that's just excellent! I wasn't aware of that, thank you. 😄

[palace261]

You're welcome @iDLe 🙂

[Anonymous]

I am considering LIbreWolf as well. It seems to be Firefox without all the proprietary garbage and anti-features which is exactly what all Firefox users want. Mozilla need to find back to their core values if they want people to use Firefox. The people using Chrome, Safari and Edge will never come to Firefox, but those of us who use Firefox and would promote it if it actually live up to the values Mozilla still pretends to uphold would use it if it actually upheld those values. LibreWolf seems like what Firefox should have been.

[Annika]

I look forward to having one big "No AI Features" button that turns all this stuff off.

[Jolie]

Coming soon! 😉 

[Sera]

Or how about just not adding it at all in the first place? What is the logic behind "here is something literally none of you want, but don't worry, we added a way for you to not have to use it, ever"? Just to burn money and the environment for fun?

[sal-z]

And this button to turn off all that AI/LLM stuff is what you need donations for, right? Didn't you already spend too much money on LLM features (it is not artificial intelligence) that no one of your past, current or future users want?

What do you think we (the users) need to really "love the internet again"?

Although I'm not young, I'm one to welcome tech progress, if I see real benefit for the people and the environment they live in. AI/LLMs may be a fine idea for some tasks, like finding patterns in pictures or sensor data (medicine or climate data) or in creating rough text translations. But LLMs should not be imposed on peoples everyday lives. Content creators get their content not only stolen, but twisted by hallucinating LLMs. Users of web browsers and search engines are constantly forced to scrutinise every single bit of advice or "fact" their browser produces. This already has proven to be dangerous for those who don't double-check, and tedious for those who do. I'm not even talking about the huge energy consumption.

Can you figure out how framing this as "Be part of the 'AI for the people' movement" combined with a statement like "We believe standing still while technology moves forward doesn’t benefit the web or humanity" makes us feeling uneasy and being gaslighted?

TL;DR: Please, please, please stop these AI/LLM projects, stop wasting money on them, stop doing more harm than good. You could still put them in some optional add-on, if you must.

[MuteDog]

Could you put the AI stuff into an add-on so that users who actually want it, can go get it that way, and the rest of us don't have to pointless unused software taking up precious space on our devices?