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.

[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.

[The13thBlackCat]

Congratulations! Firefox has been my browser of choice for pretty much my entire life, and I actually bothered to complete my account here just to tell you this specifically is why I'm looking to change browsers after roughly two decades. If I want AI bs, I assure you I'll go find it. I do not. Ever. Instead I'm trying to cut it out as hard as I can, and you kindly offered your entire browser up for the chopping block next, so...good job I guess.

[clutchpedal]

This isn't "technology moving forward" at all, and I want to put in my opposition to this addition of so-called AI. Indeed, I'd far prefer Mozilla to devote their time into *actually* making Firefox better, rather then planning to make it worse to keep up buzzwords.

[bobomilkman]

intellectual lightweight: "oh, people dont use our browser because its slower and more ressource intensive than the others? maybe we should put work into AI?"

mozilla, for some reason: "yeah that sounds good"

[nicenightmare13]

I use Firefox because I don't want AI slop. Stop destroying your browser by changing one of the few things that made you stand out. 

[lukadolphin]

As someone who appreciates Mozilla’s previous—and I say previous for a reason—stance on privacy, I cannot understand by in good conscience starting to incorporate AI is a good idea in any respect. Majority of these programs are not intelligent and are built on copyrighted material, and have the propensity to share private data or invite bad agents to access said private data. 

An inclusion of AI, something that is notoriously unreliable and ALSO extremely costly for the complete lack of actual innovation it provides, is honestly backwards thinking and something that will send me away from using Firefox as a browser at all. 

I stick with Firefox because I respect its values, but if genAI is incorporated then I will lose all respect for the browser. Like others have said, if I want bloated AI slop garbage browsing experiences then I’ll just move back to Chrome.

I think you should take all your feedback very carefully and consider exactly what your user base wants, and perhaps how sticking to avoiding AI and its issues you could instead draw in more users who respect that as a stance. Food for thought. 

[AppleZang]

I'll be succinct, and express my true feelings: **bleep** off with the AI bull**bleep**. 

[freefall4242]

I have no interest in AI whatsoever. If AI becomes more important to Firefox, I will seek alternatives.

[leftblank]

PLEASE keep all AI features opt-in only / fully removable

[astbaum]

Not interested in any A feature in firefox. I can search and read all by myself without AI shoved in my throat, thanks.

Going to look for an alternative.

[Diawl]

We don't want this.

This tech bro crap is really tedious.

No one using firefox wants this AI slop nonsense.

[xx_k4nd1_xx]

adopting AI is not "moving forward," it's implimenting the latest gimmick. it's a trend. Firefox users don't like tech trends, what we want from a browser is simplicity, reliability, safety and trust. We do not trust AI. I'm already seeing large amounts of people switching to Waterfox, who has announced their refusal to latch on to AI tools and has the exact same UI and principles as Firefox used to have. This is not what your target demographic would want, and you're already bleeding users.

[KZ-1]

I don't know if y'all are being paid some sort of big bucks to shoehorn AI into the browser, but you need to understand that unless you are getting "new wildly overpriced Teslas for every employee" kind of money, you will lose more than you gain with this. People are not using Firefox because they want "Edge but orange" or "Chrome but with a cute fox."

We are using it, I am using it, because it lets me disable AI bull**bleep** and install whatever addons I want without complaining that my adblocker is going to drive Google into financial ruin. And standing still while technology moves forward is a perfectly valid option when the technology being developed is SO untested, SO controversial, and SO bad for both the people using it (AI psychosis) and the environment being abused by it.

[MozillaLost]

It is clear Mozilla no longer aligns with their users.  This is a sad moment in internet history. 

[CHaSeD]

That's what happens when parasites make it into the C-Suite.

[2-or-more-chars]

+1 "no thank you" from me. I moved from Chrome to Firefox because it wasn't capitalising on the latest trends and actively making the user experience worse for profit. It was just a simple, functional web browser. GenAI being integrated into searches is, in fact, capitalising on the latest trends and actively makes my browsing experience worse. For profit, probably.

If Firefox continues to pivot to genAI, then at least make it available as an extension. Do not integrate it as a core feature. I do not like playing whack-a-mole in about:config just to disable a specific feature every time I install it.

If you continue with these terrible management decisions for the next several updates, I will be switching browsers. If the hand that once fed me is now feeding me poison, then our contract is up and I reserve the right to bite it. It looks like I am no longer your target audience, along with many others in this thread.

[bigdinosaurguy]

hey you do realize this is gonna make people leave and stop using the product, right?

like literally the reason most people are using firefox is because its one of the last mainstream browsers that isn't drinking the AI force kool-aid. the ceo seems out of touch w/ what the userbase ACTUALLY wants, especially in this day and age. 

we as a society are a majority just tired of having ai shoved down our throats, especially it's time and time again made our world worse to be in and not better. the more ai you integrate, the more energy , and resources it will rob from communities, and by extension, your users.

there are alternatives out there and if you don't put this idea in the trash where it belongs, we will go to them.

[SRos]

Wow way to set fire to your own house. This is utter dog**bleep** and is only going to drive your users away, myself included.

[Ghosthunting]

Bit of advice; you should probably understand your userbase. There are other non-chromium alternatives to Firefox. Your product isn't all that special. Microsoft has already begun slashing their AI budget because they saw the writing on the wall, nobody is using their AI features, and Microsoft is a nearly-inescapable tech giant, unlike Mozilla. You cannot afford to betray the interest of your userbase.

[cell]

Keep your slop to yourselves. Nobody wants it. I want to able to excise any and all AI from my browsing experience - I do not want AI to touch anything I do. I will drop this browser like a hot potato if you continue to insist upon polluting my browsing experience - it's bad enough you have to fiddle with about:config to turn this garbage off. 

Just because the horde of lobotomite business ghouls pushing this trash are so stupid they need a robot to do their thinking for them doesn't mean the rest of us are so inept, and it's frankly insulting you seem to think we are.

[Kinana]

This is exactly the kind of thing that would cause me to stop using Firefox immediately.

[cookie123]

**bleep** off. We do not want your AI bull**bleep**. Pull out or lose your userbase.

[cookie123]

The entire reason a majority of people switched from Chromium browsers to Firefox is to get AWAY from AI integration exactly like this. To implement this proves you are no different than the rest of the failing businesses who rely on it and that you have a critical misunderstanding of your user base. No one wants this. Get rid of it.

[qaaya]

If you do this I will simply switch browser. I don't understand the need to do this, I don't understand the need to AI everything. Please, please don't.

[KingQuokka]

right?

This new cuck of a CEO comes in and is so out of touch, Mozilla will die because of this bull excrement.

[Opalesse]

I use Firefox to avoid AI and would love to have more features to help me avoid AI on the web. 

[jay4]

Many people started using Firefox so they could have more privacy and less that AI **bleep**. You're ruining perfectly functioning browser with this stupid nonsense

[jay4]

Stop ruining the perfectly fine browser with your stupid AI crap. 

[authenticaussie]

lol i made a nice message and then the dumb log in feature deleted it all. Oh well.

• LLMs lie and hallucinate information, I don't want that ""helping"" me
• There have been a bunch of reports showing that private data is being stolen via prompt injection, YIKES BRO
• Environmental impact ?? Anybody??? Can we hear a shout out to the environment?? 
• I love general AI, I love automation. I hate that AI has now singularly been reduced to genAI, a creature sloughing along, built of the Frankensteined creations of hundreds of uncompensated (or, poorly compensated) writers and mathematicians and artists. genAI is a beast that has been built from theft to perpetuate theft, and as a creative I'm so freakin' tired of seeing it everywhere on the internet 

I got firefox because i was so sick a chrome + google tracking every little thing I did, and I wanted SOMETHING at least marginally less "off the freaking walls morally dubious" from a company, to wit, firefox advertised itself as such (or, at least, customisable to such)

I appreciate that this sh*t is all opt-in, but like. Is this an ""opt in"" like the last AI update y'all did, where we had to go and turn the thing off? Or is this an ACTUAL opt-in, where you get asked to turn it ON?

[KingQuokka]

I am deleting Firefox the second you push AI on us.

AI is cancer, your new CEO is cancer, nobody is asking for this.

How bloody out of touch can you be?!

[eirikaily]

The only good thing Mozilla had was that it was anti ai. They're literally shooting themselves in the foot and shooing away their users by adding something so unnecessary and that nobody asked for

[fauxfruit]

Another long time firefox user chiming in to say please don't pivot into "AI" bloatware. Yes, some LLMs can be useful, but not in my web browser. I do not want this cluttering up my browser. I already spend enough of my energy trying to get rid of chat bots on individual sites or trying to detect misinformation regurgitated by a glorified spellcheck. I don't want that integrated into my browser. This technology may have it's usecases, but this is not it.

Please focus on the thing so many of us have switched to firefox for: privacy and security. The current "AI" trends are the opposite of that, as the actively monitor what a user is doing in order to function. That is the last thing I want in my web browser.