Try out AI controls in Firefox (Nightly)

[stef]

Hi everyone 👋,

I’m Stefan, a PM on the Firefox team. We’ve talked a lot about building AI in Firefox in a way that puts users in control. Today, I wanted to share something new we’re testing that does just that, and get feedback: AI controls.

As AI-enhanced features show up in more places across Firefox, we’ve heard that you want clearer ways to understand what’s enabled and how to manage it. This feature is a step towards that. You can read more about the approach in our Distilled blog post. 

AI controls will be available to try later today in Firefox Nightly. We’re still actively working on it, so some details may change before this ships more broadly in Firefox 148 later this month.

What’s covered in AI controls today

From the AI controls page in Settings, you'll be able to manage the following AI-enhanced features:

• Translations – generative translation of webpage content
• Alt text in PDFs – generated image descriptions for improved accessibility
• AI-enhanced tab grouping – suggested group names and related tabs
• Link previews – AI-generated key points from a page before opening it
• AI chatbot in the sidebar – quick access to a selected chatbot (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and more)

All features are optional, and you can choose a setup based on what works for you.

Blocking AI features

If you don’t want to use AI features at all, the Block AI enhancements toggle disables current and future AI features and suppresses prompts. You can always re-enable individual features if you want. 

Feedback we’re looking for

Your feedback from Nightly is especially valuable as we look to continually improve the AI controls over time:

• Is the settings UI clear, discoverable, and understandable without additional context?
• Do the controls behave the way you expect when you enable or block a feature? If not, what surprised you?
• Is anything missing that you expected to be configurable, or anything present that feels unnecessary?
• Have you encountered any bugs, glitches, or confusing edge cases? Please include steps to reproduce where possible.
• Does the language used in the UI clearly explain what each control does and what it affects?

Thanks for taking the time to try this out!
- Stef

[misteralex844]

This is a solid move by the Mozilla Firefox team giving users clear visibility and control over AI features is the right approach. The global Block AI enhancements toggle especially feels important for trust. It’s also nice to see flexibility with sidebar options like Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini instead of locking users into one tool. Looking forward to testing how intuitive the UI feels in Nightly — transparency and predictability will make or break this feature.

[Cocaine_Owlbear]

Just letting you know, Stef, that I don't use Firefox anymore and won't until all AI is removed from the browser. Y'all wanna make it an addon or something that I would have to explicitly install in addition to the browser, fine, although fixing ten year old bugs might be a better use of y'all's time.

Waterfox, Librewolf, Helium, and Vivaldi have all taken a strong anti-AI stance. I recommend folks move to one of them and then telling Mozilla exactly why you left them. It's literally the only way they'll listen.

[s_hentzschel]

Sorry, this makes no sense at all. You don't have to use any of these features at all. And it would be really sad if Firefox were the only browser that could no longer translate websites without an extension. I would argue that for many people, this is an essential feature of a browser.

But it's clear that you're not interested in Firefox anyway, as can be seen from the fact that you repeatedly (!) recommend other users on a Mozilla platform to use other browsers.

[Cocaine_Owlbear]

Actually, I have always adored Firefox. I came to it from Netscape. I've been using it for as long as it's existed.

I am disgusted that they've decided to go full techbro-trend here. And AI fueled hallucinatory mistranslations aren't an improvement. But sure, it's worth burning the planet for, I guess.

[lackey]

I have a better idea. How about we remove every AI feature Mozilla has recently added, and it can be your choice to install it in an optional extension later.

[s_hentzschel]

I definitely don't want to have to install an extension first in order to be able to translate websites … And you definitely won't suffer any harm from features that you don't need to use at all. So why are you suggesting that other users should have features taken away just because you don't need them? This is selfish.

[Cocaine_Owlbear]

I definitely don't want to have AI in my web browser … And you definitely won't sufferfrom clicking two buttons to install an extension. So why are you suggesting that other users should have features they don't need or want just because you want them? This is selfish.

Can you see how unconvincing that is when you're on the other side of it? Both sides are "being selfish" in this instance, because they're asking for additions or removals based on their own needs and wants. It's not a relevant point.

[jthibeault]

Translation services existed in Firefox prior to using an LLM agent to do it poorly. If the argument is that translation services need LLM, and therefore you need to download a giant plagiarism blob so your Firefox can do it locally, this is undermined by the fact that you could translate things via Google Translate or other services just fine without tying it to a binary blob of, as I said elsewhere, dubious legal provenance.

Tying AI together with translation in order to force people who use translation to require AI is the same sort of shifty stuff Microsoft did to extend hegemony back when they weren't regularly breaking Notepad by stuffing vibe code in there. Can Mozilla please go back to its foundational principles of being a good software steward? Because bundling things people don't want with things people do is NOT a good look.

[s_hentzschel]

Yes, you can use cloud services like Google Translate. That's exactly what many Firefox users do not want. Privacy is an important part of Mozilla's DNA and therefore a local translation feature is a perfect fit for Firefox. If you don't need it: Fine! You don't have to use it. And you don't have any disadvantages if Firefox offers it for other users. You also can't argue with the size of the data because it doesn't affect you at all if you don't use it. And people who use it are fine with that.

Just respect that not everyone uses the browser the way you use it. Firefox offers choice and that's a great thing.

[jthibeault]

In actuality, I no longer have the choice to use Firefox as a browser that does not download a local LLM model unless I revert to an older version of Firefox. While that is still available, why is there so much resistance to, let's say, an interstitial screen that instead of asking "hey, do you want to turn off all these things we really, really want you to use despite your outcry against?", you could instead have a single button to opt-in, and that downloads the extension that turns Firefox from a browser into a slop-engine.

This seems like you're angry that there's resistance to using an LLM as default, not to the friction against "choice". And I'll be honest, me, and probably most of the people arguing against the inclusion of an LLM outside of the scope of what Firefox is supposed to be (a web browser, you'll remember!), we're all mad too. We're mad that the default is being forced on us and that even when we opt out we've still downloaded a bunch of stuff that could expose us to legal risk because it's pirated content. We're mad that people saying "they give you a choice" aren't getting that we DON'T have a choice any more, that it's there, installed, whether we like it or not, when just a few versions ago we had a Firefox that was completely functional and completely free of all this stuff we loathe even downloading.

[Tony2077]

Firefox does not come with any LLM model. The first time you use translation, tab ordering or key points you are shown a pop up informing that if you want the AI feature you need to first download the model. And even if you agree and download the model, you can remove it afterwards any time from the On-device AI tab in the Add-ons panel.

[SarahSyna]

We were able to translate websites well before AI was a thing. There's literally no reason for that feature to be reliant on AI when it wasn't before.

[Tony2077]

You are a bit lost, mate. Without AI whatever you translate has to be sent to 3rd party servers, and your history is easily traceable. With AI the translation is done locally with an open source model. If you are not interested in this sort of privacy, it is better for everyone if you just ditch Firefox for Chrome, they will love your data. 👍

[SarahSyna]

My lad, what do you think the AI is up to? They wouldn't be so desperate to have it crammed into every orifice if they were getting nothing out of it. And it just burns the planet on top of that.

[Tony2077]

Good luck finding an alternative to Firefox, that it's not a Firefox fork, and provides more control over privacy and AI than Firefox does.

[SarahSyna]

I don't want control over AI. I don't want it at all. So a Firefox fork that explicitly does not have AI is pretty much exactly what I'm after.

[Tony2077]

Using Firefox forks is a great way of using Firefox. Simply pick one. That’s the solution for your problem, not bashing the developers.

Mozilla has to make a great deal of guessing all possible combinations of features and configurations that every single user wants. You already have plenty of configurations, extensions and forks to suit your specific needs. What else do you need?

Remember that Mozilla and Firefox, even when they’re far from perfect, they’re an oasis in the dessert of Big Tech browsers, browsers that have very different incentives behind their development.

You don’t know what you have until you lose it. And you’re being disingenuous when you have such a strong negative reaction for what is no more than yet another feature (that you can disable with a click) out of hundreds in Firefox, used by millions of users of this browser, that has no commercial purpose, unlike the rest.

[SarahSyna]

Putting AI into Firefox makes it clear that the only difference between them and Big Tech is time.

What I'm having a negative reaction to is company after company chasing yet another idiotic fad, willfully and gleefully destroying the environment that we live in for a godamn thneed with a body count. People are literally dead because of AI encouraging them to commit suicide. There's others suffering psychosis, and every day I see ads for AI suggesting to replace your real life friends with it, outright preying on deeply vulnerable people.

It's vile, it's disgusting, and it is actively anti-human. So yeah, I have a pretty strong and extremely justified negative reaction.

[Wsky20]

Thank you Sarah.  Well stated.  Thanks for introducing me to the word "thneed" too.

[RonL]

I've been using Firefox since you folks started. It was a sad day for me when you announced that you've sold out to this "A.I." nonsense. I'm a (now retired) computer and electrical engineer and I absolutely will not use anything that has "A.I." in it. I don't care that you have a "disable" switch -- the fact that you've even gone the route of jumping onto that bandwagon has made me no longer want to use your browser or be associated with Mozilla. I already have another browser that has a firm stance against "A.I." and I'll be using it instead of Firefox. I might hang around if you totally dump any and all "A.I." and refuse to use it, though I don't think that'll happen. You've lost my support, folks. 😞

[Agentvirtuel]

Bonjour

Traduction avec Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/fr/kb/traduction-sites-web

Un test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX7oWXhlohU

To complement.
Available languages' models.
To see it in operation, you can also type about:translations in the address bar.

Configure installed languages https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/website-translation#w_configure-installed-languages
You can test, about:translations, offline.

[Waston_John]

Can we block all new enhancements??

[Alarm-Siren]

Yes, that's what the Block AI enhancements [ON] option does.

[c0d3h4x0r]

Sadly, they've still effed up by making it a buried "opt out" rather than an unmissable "opt in".

[Aas]

So when do you add AI to the browser? I need to know so that i can ditch this browser before that happens

[Alarm-Siren]

They already did. All the features that can be controlled with this new settings page are already present in Firefox:

• Translations
• Alt text in PDFs
• AI-enhanced tab grouping
• Link previews
• AI chatbot in the sidebar

Translations I think have been around for a good while now, but they were not previously billed as an "AI" feature. The others have been added relatively recently, couldn't tell you exactly when but they've definitely been around for at least a couple months.

That being said, much as I dislike AI myself (or, more correctly, fancy predictive text engines dressed up as AI), "ditching" seems like an overreaction when the whole point of this new settings page is it lets you globally and permanently disable all such features current and future, so they need never bother you ever again if that is your wish.

Indeed, supporting Firefox is still a positive thing - even if the foray into AI is, in my opinion, misguided - because it uses a genuinely independent rendering engine, whereas pretty much every other browser on the planet is cribbing on Google's work, so they all have the same foibles as Chrome does - such as Manifest v3 destroying adblockers, which is not an issue on Firefox. If we want a genuinely free internet we can't be wholly reliant on Google's code, because that gives them too much power.

[Aas]

So it can be "disabled" but it is enabled from start which is all it takes to learn everything about you before you reach the off-switch. That in itself is not a choice, its forced enabled

And seeing how almost everything else in the world is based on lies, its most likely just a matter of time before its discovered that the off switch is just for show, or that it will "accidentally" be enabled after an update...

Im just glad i disabled the auto update a few months back.

[Alarm-Siren]

You are entitled to your opinion of course, but I think you're overreacting here. As several people have gone to great pains to point out in this thread, none of the AI features are active until you purposely engage with them, and all of them except the "AI Chatbot" are local anyway so there's no data transmitted anywhere even if they are active - and the "AI Chatbot" requires you to, y'know, type things in to it before anything happens. So if the first thing you do when installing the Firefox update is set Block AI Enchancements to On... no models have ever been running on your computer, no data has been gathered (let alone transmitted), and it need never trouble your browsing experience ever again.

If any of this was not true, it would be in the Tech-press very quickly because Firefox is open-source so anyone can check what's really going on.

The being said, I do agree that Firefox should be more upfront about the available options; indeed I made a direct suggestion to the Firefox team in an earlier post that new installs should have these options surfaced during the new-user-onboarding experience. Its possible they may have actually done so, I haven't tested, but they did incorporate some of my other suggestions into the final 148 build which I have just installed so pretty chuffed to see that.

I also share your pessimism about the state of the Tech sector and I have a particular dislike for having AI forced on me. However, again, I really think flinging mud at Firefox trying to do the right thing and give people options (even if the implementation may be flawed) is tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot. The other browsers don't give a toss about user autonomy and privacy, whereas with Firefox, we complained about unwanted AI in the browser and about it being hard-to-impossible to disable... they listened, made it easy to disable, and also designed it in such a way that no AI-stuff happens without your knowledge and active assent anyway. This seems like a win to me, and a win that won't be repeated in Big Tech browsers.

[Aas]

The thing that i thought was a bit unclear, (atleast for me) was the "Block AI Enchancements to On"-option. To me it sounded like you could change it AFTER the install by going to options, and thus that it was enabled by default I did not read all of the replies and conserns you mention. And beeing AI it doesnt need much time to crawl your whole PC if it wanted. 

And yes, im old and experienced enough to have justified disbeliefs about big companies (like firefox), that promises things they have no intentions of keeping, such as: "we will not sell your data", and one day that just changes with alot of confusion and 40 pages of legal jargong to get away with things just because they name it sharing instead of selling, or whatever excuse is needed for the agenda...

However, Ill have a deeper look at this new update and hopefully ill be satisfied 

Thanks Alarm-Siren for taking the time

[c0d3h4x0r]

Mozilla (the maker of Firefox) isn't a company; it's a non-profit organization. But the rest of what you wrote, I agree with.

[Tazer_Silvascar]

As you've confirmed, however, the translation service IS part of the AI systems, and not everyone can just 'choose' not to use it. In fact, it's so critical, it's included in the mobile version of the app, where it STILL isn't mentioned that it's AI. And at the end of the day, AI is still very much a blackbox, only some people know for sure how it works, and it could very well be doing operations in the background that you aren't privy to knowing about. The only way to know for sure that it's fully operating locally is to NEVER be online, which kinda defeats the purpose of the browser.

As I said before, if, as is probably the case, Mozilla are using existing AI framework, the tech press would never get to learn about such stuff because it's a blackbox. There's parts of that code that are entirely inaccessible unless you work for the corporations who made it.

There's no harm in calling out Mozilla for not doing enough, when they very specifically said they were implementing a full-on kill switch for those AI services. AI corporations have been highly distrustful from day one, so organisations who use their services should also be looked at with a degree of distrust. I think what a lot of people want is a complete absence of AI - for there to be absolutely nothing there. No options to switch it back on again, no options to activate select services, a complete kill switch. As it is, we now have no way of knowing for sure if stuff is actually fully switched off, totally not there. We only have Mozilla's word, which is now starting to look like it can't be trusted.

[c0d3h4x0r]

People need to STOP referring to it as a "kill switch" (which implies that "A.I. enhancements" should be on by default and "opt out"), because that's exactly backward from what most users are expecting!

It should be a "permission switch", meaning all "A.I." (which isn't actually intelligence) "enhancements" (which aren't really enhancements) should be "off by default" and "opt in".

[Alarm-Siren]

... but it is opt-in?

That's what "Available", which is the default option for all AI features, is. It means that the browser will surface an AI feature at a relevant moment and ask for permission before enabling it. Until you give permission for a given AI feature, it is not operating, and indeed the relevant models haven't even been downloaded.

Honestly, I am very confused by your stance, because as far as I can tell the browser works exactly the way you want it to. No AI is on or installed by default and, unless you manually change some settings, none of them will ever be active unless you opt-in when it asks. Are you just cross that it asks? Because you can stop it asking, too...

The Block AI Enhancements toggle just stops the browser surfacing the prompt that asks if you want to turn AI features on. It doesn't need to turn them off because they weren't on to start with.

I do agree that the Block AI Enhancements option should itself be more prominent, perhaps shown to new users as part of an on-boarding experience, so that if they already know they want no AI features they can prevent Firefox from asking - but to say that the AI is 'on' by default is just false.

[c0d3h4x0r]

They already did -- secretly and surreptitiously -- months ago. Then users started noticing and complaining vociferously about it, such that they are now adding these settings to try to save face after-the-fact. It's a sleazy way to operate; they should have introduced these "AI" features as opt-in, with clear settings to control them, from the start.

[Tazer_Silvascar]

Thanks for clarifying that your translation option was in fact a test of this AI nonsense. I'd rather not have to even see AI options - after all, making these bolt-ons as extensions was kinda the point of Firefox from the very beginning. I'd rather the option to not have any AI at all be the default, because I do not trust AI functions to not be running in the background, scraping my personal data, even if you do claim they're 'switched off', or 'not on the computer', I have no evidence of that. I just have to 'trust' you, and quite frankly, until you implemented this, I did. Now I don't. Your competitors are looking mighty tempting.

[no11]

"You asked for more control over AI. We listened." No, we told you we didn't want AI in Firefox. You didn't listen.

[s_hentzschel]

Do not speak for others. You don't want AI features. I (and I am by far not the only one) want features like a website translation and suggestions for tab groups. If you don't need it, it's totally fine. Just don't enable it. It doesn't concern you at all. And the new AI controls give you even more control. This way, every Firefox user gets what they want or don't want. There's no point in complaining about it to give users control. It just makes no sense at all.

[no11]

Why don't you vibe code yourself an AI enabled browser then instead of insisting on screwing up a perfectly good one?

[jthibeault]

Genuinely, I'm amazed that s_hentzschel has spent the entirety of this thread telling people not to speak for others while also telling them that their dislike for AI is not as important as their personal preference for AI.

A web browser is a web browser. Mozilla was the stewart of what counts as being part of a web browser. They decided that the use of LLM artifacts was in the web browser's best interests. When people said no, s_hentzschel was there to tell them "how dare you say no when I say yes".

This is the problem, ultimately. The Mozilla foundation has decided to put non-web browser parts into a web browser and not as an extension, as a place of privilege where it's part of the browser whether you want  it or not.

Imagine a scenario for a moment: your web browser goes to a website like normal. That website requests translation services in Firefox and sends an artifact to your LLM. The shim that sends to the local LLM turns out to have a code execution exploit that allows jailbreaking from the LLM into the system. Firefox now has an attack vector that it didn't have before because the calls to the LLM aren't part of normal "browser" behaviour and they're totally new code, having been added to cram the LLM into the browser.

Now you can go to a website and have it execute code on your device locally. Because the code was granted privilege and is not mature enough to have been secured.

Now imagine that the coders vibe-coded the LLM shims.

You say this can't happen. I'm a security guy. I say it'll happen next Tuesday.

[Tazer_Silvascar]

Yeah, it's a bit much. Hentzschel needs time in the dug-out.
There's been a few tech YouTubers I follow who've seen this coming for a while, so I agree, it's absolutely a massive security risk.
Not saying I agree with everything those techbros are talking about (after all, many of them - such as Mutahar/SomeOrdinaryGamers - are still pro-AI), but if *they* are calling it out, it must be something to take seriously.