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.

[AlexiaSophia]

Honestly, this is how you're going to lose a LOT of users, myself included. You either insure that *all* AI is opt-out AND EASY TO OPT-OUT (no hidden links, commands, going to hidden settings, having to go through MULTIPLE toggles, random toggles that go back on, etc.) or... we're out! And honestly I'm half-way leaning towards leaving just by seeing that post and your attitude in this conversation.

[Xx_Orfevre_xX]

I don't want to be able to 'opt-out' of AI, I don't want it on the browser period. I've gone into the settings repeatedly to disable AI functionality that I don't want and have never wanted. I have never logged into the community site for Mozilla before and it took me time to find this post; that should tell you enough as a long-time user of Mozilla Firefox how important this problem is to me. I would support Firefox entirely if it started making moves to rid of any AI on a page--but if the CEO is just as out of touch as any other CEO and moves forward with this I will switch to a browser that doesn't support AI tools at all. Waterfox is built off of Mozilla's open-source code and doesn't plan on implementing AI tools ever. 

[tmich3a]

I was absolutely disgusted today when I right clicked a tab and saw an AI option, despite previously turning off all AI.

Stop this immediately. Nobody wants this, nobody is asking for it. I WILL stop using Firefox if this continues. I've been championing it to my friends and family, and I feel disgusted to see Mozilla chasing this awful trend while also making it impossible for everyday users to completely disable it.

I dropped Windows in favor of Linux for their AI push, and I will do the same for any company that is trying to force me to use technology that is built on plagiarism and is speeding up the destruction of our world.

[squarepeg]

I guess this is goodbye then. I've been a Firefox user since it was Netscape Navigator/Mozilla Browser but I can no longer stand the ridiculous moves Mozilla keeps making, the removal of the 'we will never sell your data' TOS fiasco was bad enough and I was already considering moving, crow-barring AI into the browser is the last straw.
Goodbye Firefox, you have destroyed yourself.

[Devilpants]

Over 900 replies and only 25 kudos as of this post -- not gonna lie, I don't think this AI stuff is all that popular with the userbase. Maybe it's a mistake.

[TranquiLogan]

I want to climb a mountain and scream to the heavens "I DON'T CARE ABOUT AI" I could not care less about Gemini, Grok, ChatGPT, or whatever else. I don't care to be told what to think by a program, the sole purpose of which is to regurgitate text patterns written by actual people. Waiting for the bubble to pop

[KL1]

I think this approach is excellent. One of the things that attracted me to Firefox Android mobile was the ability to have different search engines at your fingertips. You can pick your default but you can switch to alternatives easily if they happen to be more suitable. If you achieve the same sort of thing with dealing with AI chatbots that would certainly be welcomed by someone like me, who finds AI on the whole to be genuinely helpful. 

[glaive1976]

I really wish the people steering this had had the foresight to start with these new features attached to a single checkbox in settings, and then honored previous settings on update. I probably could handle the mess y'all have made of this if it didn't force me to go digging after every update to disable features I am rather obviously rejecting.

Maybe poll your users, then listen to what they want a little.

The place for y'all to force machine learning is not on the user base but on the Firefox code itself, looking for answers regarding long standing bugs and new unknown ones.