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.

[Fenryk]

Absolutely ridiculous that this is being done to begin with - the AI bloat needs to stop.

[cedarfroghair]

honestly as soon as i found out y'all were planning to integrate AI, i started looking for a different browser that doesn't use AI. i've been firefox ride or die since 2010, and i'm frankly disgusted by this bandwagon jump. I DO NOT WANT AI IN MY LIFE ANYWHERE ANYHOW. I DO NOT WANT TO DIG AROUND IN SETTINGS TO TRY AND MAYBE TURN IT OFF. I DO NOT WANT AI AT ALL ANYWHERE IN MY BROWSER. 

if you want some kind of explanation as to why i don't want AI, i'll offer this: in every instance that AI has been integrated into something, that thing invariably becomes less accurate, less reliable, and less trustworthy. AI is not a 'magical helpful tool to solve any problem' it's a form of pattern recognition model that doesn't check for any kind of viability, plausibility, or even basic facts, and it's straight up not a secure tool. i can't trust any program that uses AI because of how easy it is to break into and steal data from. i cannot have that kind of security liability, especially when i have no clue what it's even actually paying attention to! or whether or not turning it off REALLY turns it off! 

listen to your userbase. we don't want AI.

[LizardRynn]

You folks are completely missing the mission statement of Mozilla; "Mozilla is working to put control of the internet back in the hands of the people using it."

This feels like a slap in the face in response to said statement on your, "About" page. AI has only harmed the internet, and taken away the power from everyday users. The push for mass adoption by major corporations should be a major red flag. 

To quote @DonutRush, "Stop chasing slop and actually work on making sure your browser competes with Chromium in REAL areas like speed and functionality, not in digital hallucinations." 

We use your product because it works as though you actually care about the end-user, and their experience. This is going backwards. Stop chasing with every other browser is trying to do.

Not only does AI make the internet less trustworthy, but it harms the planet in the process. 

[beccaa_r]

out of here, looking for a new browser. Unbelievable. 

[Nymlok]

I HATE AI. 

I WILL UNINSTALL THIS BROWSER IF YOU PUT AI IN IT.

KICK YOUR CEO IN HIS HEAD.

RIP AI OUT OF FIREFOX OR I'LL QUIT AFTER NEARLY 15 YEARS OF DEDICATED USE.

[rasppberry11231]

what is wrong with you people

[jay666]

All the research I've seen about the effects of regular AI use shows genuinely concerning outcomes on understanding and processing information. As a search engine, Firefox mediates a user's experience of information on the internet. A responsible approach to AI, in this context, would be to not integrate it at all into your product and provide a truly valuable refuge from it. "But our competition is using it!" is also how the human race proliferated nuclear weapons. I hope we can agree that not all innovation is good. Clearly AI doesn't share the violent potential of nukes, but it does pose real security and cognitive threats to its users, to say nothing of the absolute catastrophe it's causing in artistic and linguistic professions, or its theft and automation of the work of these professionals. Firefox *had* a user base that trusted the curation of what technologies to implement for safe and private browsing - this is a really good way to completely erode that trust.

[Piss]

Literally **bleep** all the way off with this AI bull**bleep**.

[Piss]

Once these kinds of AI applications have run their course- and they already are, people overwhelmingly hate it - you're going to be left with a ruined reputation that the previous leadership team spent years building. No one is going to trust you. Have you done ANY research to help guide your decisions? Because a majority of people don't want this crap. I'm uninstalling on all my computers and I'm having my office of 2500+ do the same. Shameful. 

[MrBeefgnaw]

"We’ve heard from many of you who’d prefer not to have AI in your browser at all, and we get it"

Your new CEO sure doesn't get it! And neither do you if you think "putting the plagiarism machine in the browser but letting us turn part of it off" is what those of us who do not want the plagiarism machine in the browser at all are asking for. You are giving us the literal opposite of what we're asking for and acting like you're doing us a favor. I would slog through the modern web on the Nintendo 3DS browser before I'd use Firefox-ate-up-with-AI-bloatware.

[daisyaz]

No one wants this!! Please learn who your userbase is before you start talking about "standing still while technology moves forward". We the people are CLEARLY saying that we do NOT want technology to move in this direction. You of all companies should know better and should instead be making steps towards a Different way forward.

[sharknng]

I've been a big advocate for Firefox for a long time - to the point that it's a running joke in my friends circle. The reason why I like Firefox is it's focus of privacy and (relative) lack of bloatware - and the ability to customise it's features and turn the off if wanted. More recently, a large reason why I've championed Firefox so much is due to the lack of AI features. I am confident in saying that a vast majority of Firefox users would agree. If AI features are forced onto Firefox, I would stop using it. If I wanted features I didn't want force on me, AI everywhere, and a lower level of privacy, I would just use Chrome. The lack of being like these "modern browsers" is the main draw of Firefox.

Please do not go through with these future plans, and keep Firefox as-is. 

[Radiolaires]

However great it had been for me in the past, I'm not interested in a browser that now wants to be bloated and inaccurate wasteful spyware because that's the actual effect forcing AI onto everything has.

AI in its current state is so buggy, inaccurate and pointless you all should be ashamed for pushing such unfinished technology on consumers. 

I will find a more beneficial browser. 

[Utya]

AI makes me doubt it's answers. Always. Even if AI would be very good, I still won't believe it's answers 100%. So I almost never use it.

I want my browser AI free. I want to know that my browser (where dwell all day) doesn't spy on me.

[Chiclet]

I want my brower to do what it's supposed to - help me navigate the web. I do not want it to summarize a damned thing, pretend to talk to or at me, or generally get between me and the webpages that I want to read and/or view.

this absolutely crass AI bull**bleep** is being stuffed down our collective throats with a pneumatic hammer by techbros who spent a serious gazillion dollars on it and now are starting to realize that nobody outside of their hot boxed boardrooms actually wants it.

"intelligent space". jesus christ on a pogo stick. also, branding it as "advanced intelligence" makes me want to grab the aforementioned hammer and hit somebody with it. 

stop it, Mozilla. you were the last hold out of browser software that did what it said on the tin and apparently you've decided to throw that over your shoulder like salt along with my goodwill. "standing still while technology moves forward..." - what utter garbage. this is not technology. this is a colossal grift and that its standing in a moat of the blood that it took to cobble it even into this barely functioning state does not give it value.

i still need a browser. if this something you think is an actual good idea, i will find another one. 

[clownfishin]

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

Yeah because hallucinating lying robots in my browser is exactly how technology advances. (sarcasm)

[tora]

Just don't. Don't do it. Nobody is asking for this. 

Listen to your base and avoid the AI approach. 

Don't make me find another browser, please. 

[BlueJay]

I’ve switched browsers before for less idiotic decisions. Y’all could win by changing nothing, and instead you want to tie yourselves to a fad your user base is obviously opposed to? Why? For a buzzword that’s in the process of crashing and burning?

[vennyvidivene]

This is a great way to make me replace Firefox with a different browser. I've heard Waterfox doesn't bloat their software with worthless AI garbage.

Don't do this.

[blubstep]

Switching to another browser after 20 years feel like **bleep** but not as bad as continuing to use Firefox with ai would.

[Sudafed]

I’m ashamed I ever put my trust in you. 

[kartoffelsuppe]

Created an account just to tell you how deeply I despise this AI move. I've been a happy Firefox user for years, partly because Firefox DIDN'T include any of this **bleep**.

I'm switching to Waterfox as we speak. Goodbye.

[Atrus2000]

I woke up today to a new AI feature that had turned on all by itself. This is honestly disgusting and embarrassing at this point. Whoever takes these decisions at Mozilla should be fired on the spot and blacklisted from all projects. Maybe even be at the receiving end of a "Bless your heart".

[Beckie]

Welp, no! One of the reasons why I use this browser is because it can effectively hide Google AI overview. Don't mess this up. We're all already sick of seeing AI results literally everywhere. Don't.

[PotatTheGreat]

I want to express my utter disagreement with the introduction of even more slop, it is nothing but more bloat, not to mention that gen AI has failed to help me and others in any way so far and having it pushed into more spaces feels completely unnecessary, and even stupid as you've managed to piss off the vast majority of your userbase, the userbase that uses your product for reasons like not having to succumb to gen AI.
I hope that if you insist on introducing these features, they are opt-in, not opt-out, and that they download only after I allow them to exist, I truly don't want this, and many others don't too judging from the replies here.

[readerMan]

The only reason I switched to Firefox in the first place was because you weren’t doing this nonsense. I’m perfectly fine packing up and leaving you as well. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s opt in. The fact that you would have it as an option alone is unacceptable. The fact that you would even consider having any degree of AI integration is disgusting and shameful.

Just because the rest of the tech industry is jumping off of a bridge doesn’t mean you have to as well. Didn’t your mother ever lecture you about peer pressure?

Spineless and pathetic. 

[soylentrobot]

NOBODY WANTS THIS

GET IT INTO YOUR HEADS: NOBODY WANTS THIS CRAP

[ally_sayre]

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

The people who use it are telling you we dont want the AI in our browser. I don’t want my device fuctionality and internet bandwith wasted on a useless tool. I use firefox specifically because it isn’t an AI heavy browser. 

[neopandora]

I've been using Firefox because of privacy and not showing AI down my throat. Now that it's changed, I'm probably switching to another browser. We don't need AI in everything. In fact, it's useless for most things, uses resources we can't spare and is a bubble that will burst sooner than later. Shooting yourselves in the foot with this, guys.

[Mihnik]

It's deeply dissatisfying you'd prefer implementing a resource-demanding, glorified auto-complete that's plagarizing, prone to hallucinating and flat out lying; moreover, it is a major security problem that can be easily exploited.

Reconsider it, unless you want to speedrun bleeding your users. Which would be a shame, I've been using Firefox for quite some years, but even if it would come to switching to something else, I prefer the security and less bloat than the fad bubble that's nearly burst.

[mleb]

I disagree with adding AI browser features. Most people I know disable every AI feature they have access to because its useless and adds unnecessary bloat. Firefox's advantage over other browsers has always been in its streamlined privacy-focused approach, AI features are not consistent with what your users want.

[sb1326]

Can you just. Not have AI at all. Like come ON there is basically no major provider without AI now and there is CLEARLY demand for apps and programs that are maintaining a strict no-AI stance. Firefox doesn’t need AI, and you’re alienating a user base that has come to Firefox as an application that has previously refused to “follow the crowd”. Just stop. Please. Before we all jump ship.

[Draumesaud]

Every week there's a new AI feature to disable, and they just keep coming. Tab groups using AI, sidebar using AI, both actively tanking the browser's performance until I fully disabled them, and now a whole-ass AI window. Remove all the AI in regular Firefox and make a separate AI-Fox browser if you desperately want to keep using these useless tools that have at large made the Internet a worse and less safe space to browse. I've been a champion for Firefox for many years, but this truly is the last straw for me, and I can't recommend Firefox in good conscience anymore. I will be switching browsers.

[rat671]

I will never use a browser with an AI component. Because mozilla has stated they will pursue AI, I’m now looking for alternatives.

[Archiewhite]

What people want is a switch that is off by default and until it is not flicked on there are no AI features in the browser at all.

[MoreOrLess]

If this browser goes down this path, then I'm moving elsewhere. As it stands, if AI is the future for this browser, then that future is going to be sans a significant number of users. 

[Ñeñe]

This is so disappointing. Why would you want to alienate your userbase for a glorified text prediction tool that is actively worsening the climate crisis, destroying jobs and the creative industries, exacerbating inequality, aiding the spread of fascism, and generally creating more and worse problems than it can solve? Make it make sense. This is such a bad move, I thought you guys were more clever than this. If you go down this path, I'm out. 

[FrackAI987]

Cool, so the last browser that’s avoided hitting itself in the **bleep** with a hammer has decided its hammer time. **bleep** all the way off. 

[ZehDwarf]

I use Firefox because of the lack of AI-driven Bloatware that slows down and impacts my internet experience. Even with "Options to turn off" it's still going to negatively affect the user experience. 

This is Hype chasing, while Firefox has the ability to be on the right side of this shift in tech history, you have chosen to throw in with the worst of the data-mining, privacy violating, AI Fiends. 

[brdofths]

I am astonished at the ignorance on display here. I abandoned Chrome for Firefox to get away from AI integration. This is not something users want. 

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

Are you listening to yourself? Generative AI is not moving forward. It's a stagnant quagmire that's actively hurting the internet. It routinely fails to do what it purports to do and spreads dangerous misinformation. Making it opt-in doesn't change the fact that by embracing it, you're contributing to the problem.