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.

[flamingdiva]

"You’ve already seen this approach in some of our latest features"

Yeah and do you know what I did the second those features dropped? I turned them off. I don't want AI to be shoved down my throat, especially by a browser I thought was better than Chrome and Edge. I switched to Firefox as my main browser about five years ago because I value my privacy, something that AI doesn't. I don't see the need to get help by some bot to do something I've been doing since I was eight.

I am sick and tired of AI being incorporated into EVERYTHING regardless of whether it actually has any real purpose/use for being there. Not to mention the fact it ends up taking so much of the screen space and I usually can't fully turn it off. It's like a computer virus that's infecting all the programs that I can't get rid of.

I am already looking at alternative browsers and will no longer use any Mozilla products if you keep going down this path.

[cwg1231]

I think it's disingenuous to say that the AI features are "completely opt-in" when they appear in my URL bar and my right click menu without me having opted in. Further, I wouldn't call it easily toggleable until you implement a big switch in the regular settings menu (not hidden in about:config) that turns off all AI features. I will not donate another cent until at minimum we get a single easily accessible opt-out switch in the regular settings menu, and the AI features are truly opt-in. 

[mintyepic]

...Who wanted this? These are not useful additions to a browser I have been using since I was in school. I hate to hand it to them, but Microsoft has even realized how few people use AI assistants and has seriously dialed back their funding for Copilot because it sucked and nobody used it. Is this seriously the hill Firefox will die on? Holding onto a tech fad that will inevitably have the same credibility as asking your friend who's only source is "Bro, trust me"?

I guess all good things do come to an end, but where do we draw the line?

[mintyepic]

actually im sick of being punctual go **bleep** yourself

[Katieclysm]

The only reason I use Firefox is that it's the only 'mainstream' browser that doesn't shove this garbage down my throat. If that changes, I'll finally put in the effort to set myself up with some alternative/open-source web browser solution.

[Huuuugethumsdow]

This is sooooo disappointing. And to think that with a single announcement, you’ve guaranteed that I’ll never come within a mile of any of your products. This feature remaining “optional” is such a crock of **bleep**, too. It’s always an “option” until it’s the only option. Now I cant wait to delete your products off all my devices. Enjoy the imminent pop of the ai bubble, losers!!

[Huuuugethumsdow]

oh my god they auto-bleeped me. I said ‘crock of s-h-i-t

[ilikeslappingbr]

What the **bleep**, this will take away the only reason I still use Firefox, I urge you to get the ai **bleep** the **bleep** out and keep it out

[DonniPell]

Like others here, I'm so, so disappointed by this announcement, and the whole approach to the requested user feedback. I’ve been using Firefox from its beginning, and have stayed a user because it's different from other browsers. Any "A.i." involvement at all is not what I want, and spending resources (financial and human) on this shows a Mozilla focus I can't go along with. I'd hate to leave, but I'm already looking at other options as I carefully watch what comes next.  You have a niche user base who is very against this—and you're going to lose us without gaining any of the chromium users.

[inglorioustimes]

I'm glad to hear you're working on a way to easily disable AI, but I don't believe AI should be on by default in the browser, and I would prefer it was not in my browser at all. Firefox has become my favourite browser and it would be a huge shame for me to have to switch to a new one, but the implementation of these AI features is a bad decision which makes me think that your management does not understand the typical users of this browser - people who are privacy conscious and looking for ethical tech solutions.

[MarVleermuis]

When is the AI bubble going to finally burst like the infested pustule it is? Stop putting AI in everything, just stop it! It adds nothing of value! Especially when most people use Firefox to avoid this invasive bloat. 

[Mecha-Angelo]

Hi Jolie,

Like many others, I have a number of concerns about Firefox adopting AI. Making it so that you aren't required to use it is a nice step, and I wish all browsers did that. But I also feel as though adding any kind of AI to Firefox feels a little tone deaf to why people use Firefox in the first place.

I switched to Firefox a couple years ago because I was sick of how Google Chrome was treating me. I didn't like how much it tracked my stuff, didn't care for how search results were based on who paid them the most money rather than giving me accurate results, and I definitely do not like the direction they've gone in with ai. Firefox has been fairly good to me for the past several years, offering privacy, customization, and hosting a great series of add-ons that make my browsing and internet experience better. Genuinely, it's a great browser. But if you implement ai, I don't think I can stay. 

All of this data training stuff is taking a massive toll on the environment. The places where these data centers are being built are facing a huge issue with water consumption and water pollution, along with light and noise pollution, air pollution, and more. It's making these places uninhabitable, and a lot of the people who live in them don't have the means to move. And the communities being affects by this aren't just small towns, some of them are the size of small countries. It's not okay. You don't want to add onto the environmental impact that's already hurting our planet and our fellow humans. That's not good for anyone in the long run. Ultimately, you need humans to be alive and healthy in order to use your product. 

Additionally, ai isn't actually artificial intelligence. It's pattern recognition software. That's one of the things humans are best at, finding patterns. The difference is, the human brain can understand context and make choices. We can look at information and determine why things happen. A pattern recognition software has no brain, it doesn't understand what data points actually mean. It's regurgitating information without actually knowing what it means or how true it is, and that's dangerous to rely on. That's a big part of why I don't use it. I don't trust a source like that, I want to understand things for myself. 

If you truly cannot live without ai, please have it turned off from the start. Make it so that people have to turn it on if the want to use it. If nothing else, that would be a great data point for you to see who actually wants this feature. But if you go down this path, I'm afraid I will have to seek out other options for my browser. And that would really suck for both of us. But if it's what must be done to get the message across and stop the perpetual nonsense that is ai, then that is what I, and many others shall do. 

Jolie, in spite of all the chaos happening, I hope you have a good night. And I hope that your higher ups are reading this and really thinking about their choices. Please don't waste millions of dollars trying to implement a service that no one wants to use. If caring about humanity isn't enough to sway your decision, I strongly encourage you all to consider your bottom line and how it will suffer. The ai bubble will pop, it's just a matter of when, and I think it's going to be sooner rather than later. Humans are stubborn, we don't like it when things are forced on us. AI has been implemented in such a clunky and untrustworthy way that most people online will do everything in their power to avoid it and choke it. This is not a battle you want to fight. This isn't just about ai, this is about losing the good faith relationship you've had with your customers for the last several years. These people will be lost and never come back to your service if you keep on this path. Please, make a better choice. 

Best, 
Avril

[fishsauce]

This is not in the best interests of Firefox's userbase. I will not continue to use this browser if this keeps up, which is a shame because I had previously stood by Mozilla as a company. There are viable competitors, like waterfox and librewolf, that do not implement Gen AI. It isn't a matter of disliking tech or innovation - Gen AI is blatantly unethical, from the theft used to build it to the datacenters used to run it. This has been vocalised repeatedly by the firefox community, and it's a shame Mozilla as a company is taking this user-hostile direction.

[curiousauthor]

how about you leave our goddamn browser alone and stop shoving random useless bull**bleep** into a perfectly good product. jesus **bleep**ing christ talk about en**bleep**tification. can you people read? im starting to get worried you cant. your userbase has made it incredibly obvious we do not want "ai" polluting firefox. do not add it at all.

[GrainCreature]

Why must this be the way forward. Is it not so bad to provide a good service? Let's have a place free of ai with no purpose. Just for the sake of saying you have it. Come on

[Relembla]

If I see AI slop on firefox I and dozens of others are uninstalling. **bleep** this AI bull**bleep**. I switched to Firefox to get away from this disgusting invasion of privacy and the senseless web browser clogging. This is worse than having ads crop up in your face when you're trying to search something in your web browser. 

[Zack_S]

Just chiming it to say that I absolutely loathe every AI feature that's been added to Firefox so far. I am nauseated by the prospect of more being shoved down my throat, and I will probably stop using Firefox if this continues.

Mozilla's AI strategy DEEPLY misunderstands who their users are and what they care about, and it's the fastest way they could possibly lose even more market share. If I'm going to have to use a hacked up, customized browser to remove AI and tracking features, that browser might as well be Chrome.

[Relembla]

For reference, you are straight up destroying the number one reason so many people swapped from Chrome to firefox. If I wanted hot garbage, I would go back to Chrome. 

[Doofnoof]

You're not "standing still" while technology moves forwards, you're completely ignoring your userbase to make some quick cash. Disappointing. I had convinced just about all of my friends start preparing to move to firefox because it was the last browser untouched by AI, but if it's just gonna have AI in it why not just stay with Google? If any of us wanted to opt into AI, why would we choose firefox when literally everywhere else has AI. We don't want to opt in, we don't want an AI assistant, we don't want to toggle it or set it or choose which flavor of spyware we play with. We don't want AI. The more you shove this new fad into our faces the less we'll like it. I will be telling the very people I had convinced to try Firefox against it from here on out until things change. 

[Idiomagic]

This nonsense has to stop.
Do you want to lose your entire user base? NO ONE WANTS AI EVERYWHERE!
Not only do we not want it, but we will protest its presence by walking away from your product forever.
This is the stupidest business model in the stupidest timeline. Please just...stop.

[AgentKalGibbs]

Please actually listen to your user base, don't taint firefox with AI slop at all.

[gibberishbot]

"Completely opt-in:" STRAIGHT UP A LIE. "Full control: easily toggle" also a lie. You know full well that having to open about:config and know the name of the preference to search and change it - to opt out, as it was on by default - is not an "easy toggle." It was very obviously intended to go unnoticed and unchanged by most users. 

I don't care if you supposedly "get it" re: your users wanting our browser to be AI-free if you're just shoving it anyway. If anything, that makes it more insulting. AI isn't tech moving forward, it's an environment-destroying scammy bandwagon y'all want to hop on and absolutely do not need to.

There had better be a 180 on this in the next few weeks or I'm cancelling all my Mozilla subscriptions and switching browsers. As it is, I'll be working on switching to LibreWolf.

[TheNights]

No. You don’t need AI to make advancements. No one wants it, and this new CEO is a corporate sleezebag who thinks AI should **bleep** and breath for people. Stop pushing AI on people!!! 

[EdigsFox]

We don't want this!

[FinalNail]

Wow… you really went for it. As a previous donor I was bitter about Pocket, but still mostly sympathetic to Mozilla. That’s over. You’re over. We use Firefox not because it’s better than Chromium (it’s not), we use it despite it being significantly worse because of an ideal that we associate to Firefox. Now you’re part of the biggest intelligence gathering machine in history, fueled by burning our planet and by people who don’t understand AI.

[Resplendent606]

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the recent direction Mozilla has taken under the new leadership. I understand this will probably be another echo in the wind or another grain of sand on a beach, but this is important to me. Many of us, loyal supporters of the open-source community, feel disillusioned by the appointment of your new CEO, Mr. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, who lacks relevant experience in open-source technology and instead comes from backgrounds in financial technologies and real estate. This shift feels akin to being managed by private equity, prioritizing short-term financial gain over the core values that have defined Mozilla over its rich history.

This is reminiscent of the decision to hire Brendan Eich, an opportunist whose unfortunate views ultimately forced even Mozilla to take a stand. Just as that mistake raised concerns, I see similar risks on your current path. The integration of "AI" features into Firefox feels not only misguided but also ethically wrong. This isn't merely a matter of personal preference regarding LLM’s but it represents a betrayal of the principles that make Mozilla unique.

In the current moment full of hype surrounding LLM’s, it is important to remember what sets you apart from the competition. Firefox has long championed open-source ideals, challenging corporate giants in the name of good. Yet, the introduction of technology based on LLM’s tarnishes that legacy. Scientists and other important experts have critiqued LLM’s for being harmful to our environment and rely on illegal and morally bankrupt practices that infringe upon the rights of creators, including authors, artists, and musicians, producing content that is derivative rather than original by design.

The “AI” bubble grows and companies that chase fads and easy profits will likely be the first to collapse. Those who remain true to their original mission and innovate responsibly will endure. While your mention of a "kill switch" offers a band-aid on the issue, it creates the question “why introduce features that contradict your foundational ethos at all?”

What makes you different now, and how will you ensure that Firefox does not merely follow industry trends but instead leads with innovation rooted in ethical practices?

I urge Mozilla to refocus on its core mission of fostering an open and ethical internet, remaining true to the values that have long generated support from its community.

Thank you for considering my thoughts.

[subtlety]

It may be time for the new CEO to step down or fork the browser himself to make the AI bs of his dreams. Otherwise we need to fork the browser and leave this bs in the dust

[subtlety]

If you want an AI browser, fork the main browser and build it, call it something else, and let it fail on its own merit. Nobody is migrating to AI browsers, most people don't want AI tools on their machines, nobody likes AI slop in the search engine. You need to make the AI slop machine a separate project, away from FF

[subtlety]

If you want an AI browser, it needs to be a separate project, away from the main browser. Fork the main browser, build your AI slop, and watch it fail on its own merit. 

[ReiA]

I, for one, do not want "AI" to even be an opt-out feature. Let it be an extension for those addicted to ELIZA.

Leaving aside the sheer contempt "AI" developers have for wide swathes of the population, the social and environmental damage "AI" is causing, and the economic implications of this technology, "AI" is fundamentally incompatible with Mozilla's stated values. It is incompatible with trust, as any implementation is willing to spread falsehoods. It is incompatible with privacy, as it was built on theft and any implementation, by definition, has to share its input with a data centre. It is even incompatible with continuing to provide an economically-viable alternative to Chrome; this "feature" needs to be paid for, and provides little return on that investment.

Implementing this technology will do little but ruin trust in the company with no return. What then, when the free "AI" access runs out? Will the company axe these "features" or will it double down, forcing ads down people's throats and selling their data to pay for something nobody wants?

[Turaiel]

I saw the news that Firefox will indeed have an option to disable all AI features. Thank you for listening to us!

[subtlety]

They already have AI features you need to manually disable in about:config

[Turaiel]

Yes, I know that. I complained about it loudly in a prior post in this thread. They've announced they're going to put a switch in settings that disables all of the AI features across the board. I am happy about that.

[Resplendent606]

Having it in the code and having a "kill switch" to remove it is asinine. It is like a car company having the exhaust into the cabin and saying "We gave you a kill switch so the windows will go down!"

[MrBeefgnaw]

"Hooray! The restaurant that started topping their baked potatoes with cat poop is going to give us a pair of tongs to remove the cat poop from the baked potatoes!"

[SneaselSupremac]

Your users do not want AI. Your users do not want AI. YOUR USERS DO NOT WANT AI! We've been making this obvious enough a toddler would understand, how do you not get it? Go the other direction - strip every AI feature presently in the browser, and make a pledge not to add any more or work with AI providers - and you'll have a satisfied user base. 

[Meven]

Adding my voice to the choir here. I began using Firefox because I was tired of all the nonsense pushed into other modern browsers. If Firefox push the same nonsense, I will seek another browser. 

[oldgit]

The minute you bake in some ridiculous hallucinating AI is the day I'm outta here.

Can we just go back to Netscape Navigator?

[UndeadHoopoe]

"Standing still while technology moves forward" are you joking? Not only are you clearly not listening to the people here adamantly opposed to AI but you're completely neglecting all the ways AI has done considerable damage. "Intelligent" and "advanced" technology? I don't think so. 

'But you can opt-in!' That's great. For once we are seemingly given the choice to "opt-in" instead of the underhanded opt-out. But how can I trust that? So many other companies and CEOs and et cetera are shoving AI down our throats so thoroughly that they try to manipulate us into using it on accident. I cannot trust an opt-in when you are implementing AI in the first place. How do I know something isn't going to be changed without my knowledge? How do I know that my data isn't being spied on, scraped for, stolen by, or used to train AI? A commitment and promise to "transparency" means nothing to me when you're ignoring the majority of people who don't like or want this and moving forward with it anyway. I switched to Firefox recently because I am sick and tired of Google and their everything, including their obstinate refusal to not have AI invade every space of their company. I came to Firefox because it was supposed to be a safe alternative. This is a really Google move and I am very frustrated that I now have to find another search engine because you care more about an "advancement" in technology over the real people who are asking you not to do this. 

The way AI is used right now is not intelligent and is not advanced--it feels like we're regressing, not progressing. But if you are going to implement AI despite your consumers' wishes, then I want to know your plan for offsetting the environmental impacts, if you were even going to look into that at all. What are your plans for making your data centers water positive? How are you going to combat the sheer volume of pollution? What about public health and safety? You cannot honestly tell me that a technology that causes this much damage is advanced so I need to know how you're addressing these issues. 

"Help us shape the future" we won't have a future if corporate greed continues to be the main objective. You are not *listening* to us. It's an insult to say you'd "love our input" only to ignore what we say anyway. I am severely disappointed in your lack of awareness. Falling into the same pit-holes as other corporate entities is not progress. Please, roll back from implementing AI. 

(p.s) Shall we take bets if they used AI to summarize this for them?

[fransanmonk]

Been using Firefox for... wow! more than 15 years now. I don't want AI in my browser, I want the focus on privacy and the promise you made about not selling my data to be honored.