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.

[Gaspar_Ghost]

Like many others, I do not want more "AI" on Firefox. In my eyes, you've been one of the few doing what you thought was right, and not just following trends like everyone else. You delivered a good product despite struggles, with the users in mind. Inserting more and more "AI" into Firefox just makes you like the others, making you lose what distinguishes you and alienating your userbase.

[marbles]

hey can I dislike this? baking in Ai to my browser adds unnecessary bloat and I lose my much desired privacy to train your stupid wasteful program. If people want an Ai assistant make it into an extension or a plug in, HELL, make your Ai chatbot a Paid product if you love it so much. Just know I don't want a cent of any revenue gained from my usership going to that **bleep** thing.

[Zwei2x]

Absolutely horrible. Stop trying to ruin Firefox with AI and privacy issues.

[jukebox1412]

I have no interest in AI and would rather see effort put into any other aspect of Firefox.

[isthisusrnmtkn]

don't you dare, i will leave firefox forever. stop the slop

[isthisusrnmtkn]

stop with the ai stuff. we do not want it, we do not need it.

[isthisusrnmtkn]

nobody wants this, stop shoving it down our throats.

[CHaSeD]

What a tone-deaf announcement! I don't know which member of the C-Suite pushed for this grift, but their golden parachute has to be worth less than the potential permanent loss of reputation from burned users. No one asked for this garbage. No one *needs* this garbage. Cut it out, or face a deluge of uninstalls!

[Dougiefresh]

This is bull**bleep** and not why I use Firefox. If this sucks as hard as it sounds like it will, I’m probanly done with Firefox.

[Gnomes]

Genuinely so disappointing.

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

Saying this does not just magically make it true. This statement is based on so many false assumptions it would be a waste of my time to point them out. I can't express the depth of my disappointment in this anti-user base attitude, other than to say that after over a decade of being a die-hard firefox supporter, I'm moving browsers. Bye.

[Unhappy]

No AI. I do not want AI. Why is it so hard to understand that the userbase does not want AI? I genuinely do not understand how someone can be so divorced from the reality of their product's userbase that they refuse to listen to feedback.

I will switch browsers if you continue with the current grandstanding about turning Firefox into a "modern AI browser.

[reallynow]

This is an absolutely horrid idea and is shooting yourself in the foot on one of the VERY FEW footholds you had over literally any other browser

[Fitzybitz]

If AI is supplemented against the will of your customers (me), I'll be ending my mozilla vpn subscription. Clearly your company does not care about privacy since AI scrubs their users. Stop following the idiotic footsteps of every other rich ceo that's fully lost touch with reality.

[Brackets002]

This, specifically, is why I'm leaving Firefox. I'll be back if you ever get rid of all this AI **bleep**.

[Shiro_Snep]

We don't want this and will uninstall the moment this goes live with an update and will never return even after you remove the AI. Wish everyone would stop trying to force their AI systems on us, if we want it we would install it separately and if you force it like this we simply abandon you and move on like with windows.

Lets be clear, if its not a local run AI with no telemetry and training data being sent back and not fully controllable by us it will not be allowed to run on our systems. I will also flag you and fail client audits if they have your browser installed even on one PC in their network once AI is part of it. 

[Lootenhans]

Current AI gen and chatbot integration are not "moving forward" in browser technology. Browsers built around current LLMs and chatbots are a complete destruction of everything anyone wants in a browser. They degrade privacy, security, even general use by creating massive processing bloat and slower service. In non-tech terms, it's like saying tying a pallet of bricks to the back of your car is the next step in innovation. I for one am gone from all Mozilla products if current AI models become central to any of their framework.

[ange]

please do not do this. no one wants this 

[Really_UnHappy]

"Hello, we at Firefox understand that we have been many people's browser of choice for decades now because, unlike our competitors, we have never shot ourselves in the foot. However, today we have some exciting news for you all. As you can see, I have placed my foot up on this table, and in my hand is a pistol. Standing still while technology moves forward doesn't benefit the Web or the people who use it. And that is why we see it as our responsibility to shape how this bullet will blast through our foot and create a new hole full of opportunity."

[xx_k4nd1_xx]

best comment!

[dogtoothe]

I will quit Firefox if AI is here to stay. I migrated my entire Chromium existence over to it a while ago, why make me regret that?

[bingobongo]

I don't want AI. I want to think for myself. I want to talk to real human beings. I want to read articles written by real human beings. I want to receive tech support from real human beings. Stop forcing this garbage down everyone's throat.

[Kreetn]

I despise AI. It’s trashy, cheap and pollutes actual information gathering tools. This will in no way benefit Firefox or its users. 
It’s not improving in terms of accuracy, it’s just hallucinating answers on a broader scale. 
this won’t attract investors (ai is a bubble) and it won’t attract users (they hate ai). 

[Lexi]

I can't say anything new that wasn't said before by other commenters.
The entire announcement feels like meaningless corpo-speak. How exactly does "shaking to summarize an article" help promote openness and transparency?
I'm strongly considering switching to a new browser, one that isn't focused on "how AI integrates into the web" I'm tired of companies designing their software to have all of the newest marketing buzzwords included. It was the same way with blockchain, crypto, web 4.0 or 5.0, and to some extent with the Internet of Things or cloud computing.
The reason many people use firefox is because they trust it to be a reliable browser, focused on the user instead of extracting the maximum amount of profit. Now I feel it's losing a lot of that trust.

[drjigglebones]

You know what would be INFINITELY better? Not wasting dev time bloating this browser with AI slopware. Tell Anthony he's a moron and collectively fire him.

[Shadyfrog]

The moment AI goes in I uninstall on all devices. You may want to move forward in the tech world but you are moving backwards in what your users want.

[22]

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

Actually yeah it does. Think about it, nobody wants AI jammed into everything. So if you move forward into things people don't want then that is worse than standing still. Please make yourselves aware of en**bleep**ification or the corporate desire to change all the time resulting is angry users. Don't be digital cancer, don't think you're moving forward when you're diving head first off a cliff. AI is a gimmick.

[vampiri]

No thanks. Please don't spend time, money, and energy doing what everyone else is. Could you just focus on being a browser and stick to that? Thanks!

[Lightcell]

Just don't even, I only use Firfox because there is no AI bullcrap involved. I Don't want that garbage on my browser, I wasnt a functional browser that serves my needs and lets me block ads.

[ShSaBo]

I picked firefox as one of the alternatives to google because I was hoping to avoid this ai obsession. Maybe that was naive of me. However, it still baffles me how it's possible for people to still buy into the "necessity" of shoving ai down people's throats when we keep saying over and over again that we do not want it. It's a bad investment. The sense of "progress" that companies get from ai is short lives and lacks perspective - because eventually the ai will start eating itself and warping beyond all recognition. The "benefits" do not outweigh the risks, because it contributes so massively both to the destruction of our planet, and to the violations of privacy that we deal with on the internet. This feels like an internet-wide case of mass hysteria, where people, for some reason, have started treating a magic eight ball as the answer to all their problems - except it's also being forced onto people that DO NOT WANT IT. It only makes me feel unsafe using firefox, and I'm really tired of having to constantly switch browsers. But I will do it if I have to, because this is ridiculous. 
 In short - stop forcing ai down people's throats because of your own sunk cost fallacy.

[thejauntyfool]

For the love of god, I and a lot of people use Firefox because it never pulled this **bleep** before. As someone on Mastodon said, "Hello, we're Firefox, the only browser that hasn't hit itself in the **bleep** with a hammer. for years now, folks used us because of our un-hammered **bleep**. now, you may be wondering why we've brought this hammer and pulled out our **bleep**. Well, I'm glad you asked-"

[J_N]

The main reason I've even been using Firefox, besides access to amazing user-made extensions, is because it hadn't been forcing gen-ai into everything. Don't help google make the entire human race stupider while destroying the environment. The short-term profits aren't worth it. 

[basementdog]

i've created an account just to say this -- i do not want ai features in my browser. i will find a new browser if you go forward with this. i have no grace to extend to yet another ceo who is so, so wildly out of touch with what their userbase wants and expects from their product. be for real right now, honestly, you are making a mistake with this decision, and the only way you might maaaybe get some trust and respect back from your userbase is if you admit it.

[bvl]

Adding AI into your products is not something people are waiting for - it actively worsens any and all experience in the application it's forced into. No one asked for this and it is not adding any benefit other than making shareholders happier. Please for the love of god do not go forward with this AI approach before the bubble bursts and your company goes down with all the rest of the AI slop companies.

[saintbaron]

Literally no one asked for AI in Firefox

[rhovan]

Some concerns even if I can fully disable the AI:
- I'm not that tech-literate, so it's not always clear to me that I've picked the AI settings I want and that they actually do what they say. If AI is going to be rolled out, I hope it'd be in a way that's very clear and very transparent.

- I'd hope that AI doesn't get in the way of accessing support or features that don't need to be inherently AI-dependent. Like if the default response to a support issue is "ask the AI chatbot," is that going to make it harder to access support without AI?

- The environmental impact of AI is huge and usually not well-documented. What plans does Mozilla have for addressing that? e.g. using highly efficient algorithms, recycling water, reusing components. At the very least, I'd think that disclosing the direct environmental consequences of AI-based products and services (in line with the UNEP's recommendations) is a necessity. 

[ursulaklegun]

"We're adding the evil ecocidal lying plagiarism machine to our software, but don't worry, you can opt out 😉  " Two decades of trust chucked out the window for the latest tech bubble. Don't let the doorknob hit you, Enzor-DeMeo.

[PlaguedMelody]

ugh, just when i thought a browser wasn't going to shove AI slop down our throats. We dont need AI flooding every piece of technology we own guys. That AI bubbles is going to pop sooner or later, just like when these same techbros INSISTED NFTS were the future, and all you'll have is a broken browser, unhappy users, and poor financial decisions.

[ASW]

If LLMs are implemented into Mozilla Firefox, I will be removing all Firefox browsers from my laptop and phone. I will not touch any browser with genAI implemented -- it is useless, untrustworthy, environmentally destructive and merely the hot new trend that adds nothing to the Firefox experience. The main pull of Firefox is how user-friendly it is. GenAI will reverse this completely and utterly.

[f00l]

Following buzzword trends is not moving forward. There are some AI-related features that are interesting. The AI chatbot, nice. The button for translations, nice. The AI context menu that sometimes pops up, already not-so-nice. But the problem is that having SOME non-invasive AI features and claiming to center Firefox around AI as your CEO claimed are not the same:

Third: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.

Do you want an idea for an AI-related feature? A way to detect when a text or image is probably AI-generated slop.

[Kozia]

I am quite disappointed in this development and propably will consider switching to another browser if Firefox continues to push AI.