Firefox dev clarifies there will be an AI 'kill switch'

if i'm being extremely charitable - i can see how a focus on AI might support their goal of diversifying funding away from google (by hitching their wagon to the AI bubble)

you have to assume that at the board level it's being done out of sincere belief and motivation though, so we'll see.

Last edited by Petethegoat on 18 Dec 2025 at 5:13 pm UTC

It's shocking to me that none of these big companies have made the realization of "Hey, you know what would go over really well? Committing to NOT adopting AI in our product." Out of anyone, it should've been Mozilla.

So ones looking for AI options will be able to use them and ones who want to nuke them from orbit will also be able to do so. Perfect middle ground.

Too late. Already got rid of FF.

Nah. Mozilla's burned too much goodwill with their various stunts and I honestly don't trust them any more. It's off to Waterfox for me.

On one hand I'm glad, but on the other hand, I'm starting to think that Mozilla would be better off if they put slightly more of their budget towards getting competent PR people, rather than AI features.

When talking about 'Ai' , but for web use when asking simple questions it always seems to present anything you asked about as being correct even if it's not.. it's kind of hard to explain but almost like excessive flattery, & the information isn't always correct when i do manual research on the same question, perhaps i look at a tutorial video. i.e the consensus vs the common-sense(sus) from a human.

But then, if you ask it something intentionally controversial it reverts to what seems like a pre-defined script offering no true insight but just guard rails to shuffle you back to a predefined end point, no learning, no intelligence essentially ingrained propaganda.. it reminds me of the basic talk programs i used to write on my ZXSpectrum , literally no better.

And to think that there is around half a trillion $ invested in this stuff. What's a viable use case so far for normal people to subscribe and pay for it ? , im not even convinced there is any enhanced ad tracking revenue from it either more than the current algorithms. Just a way to summarize (badly) a webpage and render some creepy looking images , which again .. im not paying either. Oh and Ai music isn't anything other than formulaic garbage.

What about the mistakes too, no human required to vet that brand new Ai vibe code when machines start faltering and killing people ? Sound's like it will cost a lot more money in the end and possible prison sentences.

Im not against tech in general, this time though i just don't see it doing anything other than augmenting existing situations but with the same caveats as a normal system which is that a human needs to trust that system and that still requires non Ai human intervention.

BTW not convinced by FF here, i run Librewolf which also has the ML turned on by default. Not sure where to turn but im pleased there are Dev's out there keeping a beady eye on any blackbox stealth features these companies might add.

That's the power of FOSS :)

btw in the last Firefox thread someone mentioned you have to set 'browser.ml.enable' to 'false' in about:config.

Actually it might be more like a whole bunch of this:

browser.ml.enable

browser.ml.chat.enabled

browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled

extensions.ml.enabled

browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled

browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled

browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge

browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge

browser.ml.chat.shortcuts

browser.ml.chat.shortcuts.custom

browser.ml.chat.sidebar

browser.ml.checkForMemory

browser.ml.linkPreview.shift

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Disclaimer*: Im not advocating for anyone to do this, if it breaks your browser experience then that's on you to set at your own discretion. Just pointing out how un-user friendly this is for non tech savvy folk who want to use firefox daily.

Just Having a big 'Turn Ai Off' button is pretty lame, it should either be a browser extension or be turned Off by Default and have a pop up to ask if the user want's it enabled ( within which information is displayed as to how it works and what data is gathered in full )

I'm not totally agreeing with the direction Mozilla is taking Firefox. And by that I mean I'm opposed to many of the decisions that plagued the software in the last half decade.

This is another one. The "AI everywhere" thing is problematic for a lot of reasons, some listed here:

- privacy issue with third party
- trust in the software itself
- normalizing uses that may or may not have short and long-term negative impact on people
- diverting funding for small-ish projects (I'm sure integrating AI everywhere is far from free in term of dev time)
- aggressive "be all end all" approach
- intrusiveness

With that said. If Mozilla is bent on adding these features, AND they keep maintaining Firefox as a browser (you know, the thing it should be), keep it as compliant as possible with evolving specs, etc., while having a clear, proven to work "AI kill switch" on the side, sure, why not.

I still fear that this will lead to less resources allocated to actually useful stuff, and that it is part of normalizing the mindset of "we can't do anything without AI", but currently the alternative is "go back to chrome" or "use forks that don't have the resources to keep things clean", so I'll take the kill switch.

…until some other, more sane alternative gets seriously worked on. If the FSF decided to publish and maintain a free, working browser, I'd up my donations I guess. Or to anyone else for that matter; a working, up-to-date browser is kind of a big thing these days.

Quoting: Cley_Fayeso I'll take the kill switch.

_
As i mentioned in my other post, i'll take the conscientious FOSS Dev's pouring over the code to make sure it's actually fully 'Off'.

Speaking of which:

Spoiler, click me

Apple experienced a significant security flaw in FaceTime in early 2019 that allowed users to eavesdrop on others without their knowledge or consent. This bug affected the Group FaceTime feature and sparked widespread concern over user privacy.

The issue was first discovered in January 2019 and became publicly known when it was reported that a teenager in Texas had found the vulnerability and alerted Apple. Notably, the bug allowed a caller to activate the microphone—and in some cases, the front-facing camera—of the recipient’s device even if the recipient did not answer the call

Is that related to Ai ? Not specifically but it does show how a piece of software can be unintentionally ( or maliciously) coded to function in a way that the user has no knowledge of until it's too late. We trust these devices more than ever, there can be no ambiguity with privacy or security and by extension we have to place a certain degree of trust in the Company maintaining the software.

Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.

Hmm... now you made me curious what you replaced it with. The only other widespread browser engines I am aware of are made by Google and Apple. And replacing the only major free browser engine with a corporate product would be an interesting choice, wouldn't it?

Too late, today I switched to LibreWolf after literally DECADES of loyalty, and everything is working great, I'm not going back unless things change A LOT.

Also about that killswitch, let me guess, it will be opt-out and will reset each time a update is installed, right?

Quoting: doragasuToo late, today I switched to LibreWolf after literally DECADES of loyalty, and everything is working great, I'm not going back unless things change A LOT.

Also about that killswitch, let me guess, it will be opt-out and will reset each time a update is installed, right?

btw read those settings above. They are currently enabled in Librewolf too.

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.

Hmm... now you made me curious what you replaced it with. The only other widespread browser engines I am aware of are made by Google and Apple. And replacing the only major free browser engine with a corporate product would be an interesting choice, wouldn't it?

In my case, I switched to LibreWolf. It's Firefox based but with enhanced tracking protection (anti fingerprinting) and with all the stupid things Firefox has been adding lately also removed.

Took me like 5 minutes to switch: install the browser, copy the profile from Firefox and done, I had all my tabs, all my extensions, the configuration, etc.

The only warning is due to the enhanced tracking protection, some pages might break (e.g. typically calendar apps will show incorrect time due to timezone spoofing) or if you use dark theme it might get ignored. You can disable the protections globally or per site to go back to the correct behavior.