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PayPalUpdate 19/12/25 10:02 UTC - A rep from Mozilla got in touch with GamingOnLinux to note the new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, did actually speak about this on Reddit directly themselves a couple of days ago as well. Here's what they said:
Hello, Anthony here. I appreciate the input and the feedback. Please keep it coming.
To be successful Firefox should serve almost everyone. Browsers are a unique product, it's a product that has to work for just about everyone on the planet. Developers, Linux users, students, parents, and people who never change a default setting. Their needs differ. Sometimes they conflict. My job is not to ignore one group to serve another. It is to make Firefox work for everyone without losing its core values.
Rest assured, Firefox will always remain a browser built around user control. That includes AI. You will have a clear way to turn AI features off. A real kill switch is coming in Q1 of 2026. Choice matters and demonstrating our commitment to choice is how we build and maintain trust.
Original article below:
The saga continues! A Firefox developer has taken to social media to note there will be some sort of "kill switch" to completely remove AI features in the wake of the news about more AI features coming along with the new CEO.
Speaking on Bluesky and Mastodon across multiple posts that I'll quote below to save you clicking around they said:
Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features. We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.
All AI features will also be opt-in. I think there are some grey areas in what 'opt-in' means to different people (e.g. is a new toolbar button opt-in?), but the kill switch will absolutely remove all that stuff, and never show it in future. That's unambiguous.
I'm not asking for faith in our direction - the thing I love about the Firefox community is how open, honest, and technical it is.
But I do ask that you don't have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we're going to do the wrong thing here.
I hope we can (re)gain your trust here. I don't personally work on this stuff, but I'll try hard to answer any questions you have. And other than that, I'll get back in my lane, and stick to web platform stuff. - Jake (@jakearchibald.com)
Personally, it all still makes me very uneasy. The list of problems with generative AI is endless. I'm happy they are committed to a simple switch to turn it all off, but the fact that they're still pouring resources into AI is a problem. A browser simply doesn't need to have a ton of AI features bloating it. To me this feels like Mozilla are just doing what every other company seems to be doing - chasing a ridiculous bubble for marketing and buzzwords.
What do you think to this? Let us know in the comments.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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You can also find comments for this article on social media: Quoting: sarmadIf everything is opt-in as this dev says, then I think their new CEO simply gave the wrong message by calling it an AI browser.So the CEO of Mozilla has zero idea about the product they are managing. Yet we have to trust a dev that says " I hope we can (re)gain your trust here. I don't personally work on this stuff, "
So one dev who doesnt work on it and a CEO who called it an Ai Browser.
Im getting serious " Everything Computer " vibes here.
Even if we charitably assume that there won't be any caveats with it being opt-in or with the kill switch, it still reflects poorly on Mozilla that they're even pursuing this garbage in the first place.
But I do ask that you don't have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we're going to do the wrong thing here.Experience?
Quoting: no_information_hereb) Vivaldi has made a public no-AI statement. I prefer FF, but a good alternative is sitting there waiting.I would be careful about Vivaldi as the CEO has made some weird political statements in the past - though I'm no longer able to find any of them at all potentially due to search being scrubbed, as for Proton (this being relevant because Vivaldi ships free Proton VPN) I'm not sure of it sometimes but personally I don't use their services except email.
Quoting: GoEsrwe cannot have the opposite of faith or the reverse. So um... Quantum faith ?But I do ask that you don't have the opposite of faith. Like, try not to be determined that we're going to do the wrong thing here.Experience?
Last edited by Lofty on 18 Dec 2025 at 10:36 pm UTC
Also what's the alternative? Crappy reskins of chromium? :/
At least Mozilla seems to listen and reacted to the backlash. Imagine google doing that…
Linux_Rocks 9 hours ago
Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.Maybe I am of an older generation, but why this on/off view?
Mozilla says they going to do AI in the future somewhere, it's not clear exactly how or what this exactly means or how it will be incorporated but you drop it like a hot potato and suddenly overnight they are evil.
The world is many shades of gray, not just black and white, see how it onfolds and then take a decision.
This way they might have seen that their users don't need these AI features.
Better yet, the surveys may have pointed what the users actually want, and might even have lead to a community-driven roadmap.
Instead of that, Mozilla is having as many bad ideas as they have new CEOs...
Last edited by Creak on 19 Dec 2025 at 6:26 am UTC
Quoting: SlayerTheChikkenI don't think so. The CEO of Vivaldi is Jon von Tetzchner, who was one of the original founders of Opera. I have never heard anything but positive comments from him.Quoting: no_information_hereb) Vivaldi has made a public no-AI statement. I prefer FF, but a good alternative is sitting there waiting.I would be careful about Vivaldi as the CEO has made some weird political statements in the past - though I'm no longer able to find any of them at all potentially due to search being scrubbed, as for Proton (this being relevant because Vivaldi ships free Proton VPN) I'm not sure of it sometimes but personally I don't use their services except email.
You are probably thinking of the CEO of Brave, Brendan Eich. While he is skilled, he has been caught in a number of controversial positions.
Or, maybe you are thinking of the CEO of Proton, Andy Yen. Yes, he said some stupid things during covid, but I won't blame Vivaldi for that.
Last edited by no_information_here on 19 Dec 2025 at 7:22 am UTC
Quoting: BumadarIt's not on/off. In my case, it started years ago when they decided to install an extension to serve Mr. Robot ads, and that snowball has been rolling until now, one bad decision after other. I have been seriously considering switching for months, this has been the tipping point for me.Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.Maybe I am of an older generation, but why this on/off view?
Mozilla says they going to do AI in the future somewhere, it's not clear exactly how or what this exactly means or how it will be incorporated but you drop it like a hot potato and suddenly overnight they are evil.
The world is many shades of gray, not just black and white, see how it onfolds and then take a decision.
Quoting: BumadarIt's part of the zeitgeist. Everything is black and white. There is no middle-ground on anything from politics, conflicts, tech or weird celebrity comments.Quoting: CentrisToo late. Already got rid of FF.Maybe I am of an older generation, but why this on/off view?
Mozilla says they going to do AI in the future somewhere, it's not clear exactly how or what this exactly means or how it will be incorporated but you drop it like a hot potato and suddenly overnight they are evil.
The world is many shades of gray, not just black and white, see how it onfolds and then take a decision.
Truth is there is no new information here compare to the previous statement from Mozilla. AI should be optional and easy to turn off.
Last edited by Brokatt on 19 Dec 2025 at 8:18 am UTC
hardpenguin 2 hours ago
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.There is a fundamental problem with depending on a *Firefox* fork to alleviate potential Firefox issues.
If the upstream (Firefox) starts messing up with a lot of features that used to work fine but are now entangled with unwanted bloat, each fork have to do more work to untangle the mess. And, when the upstream codebase inevitably starts to deviate too much, maintaining the fork gets exponentially tedious. It's not like LibreWolf's devs said "I want no AI and tracking" and poof, it's done.
If the worst happen and the cleaned up Firefox forks have to completely separate from the upstream, then any future improvement (and that would include spec conformance and fixes) will have to be manually cleared again and backported from a source tree that's more and more distinct over time. I have no idea about the resources available to LibreWolf, but that would end up meaning maintaining the whole thing instead of a fork. That's a big task.
Liam Dawe 2 hours ago
Quoting: Cley_FayeYou are completely right, but currently I think it's my best option. I absolutely don't want a Chromium based browser. In an ideal world, Servo would be production ready and I could switch to that. But it's not there.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.There is a fundamental problem with depending on a *Firefox* fork to alleviate potential Firefox issues.
If the upstream (Firefox) starts messing up with a lot of features that used to work fine but are now entangled with unwanted bloat, each fork have to do more work to untangle the mess. And, when the upstream codebase inevitably starts to deviate too much, maintaining the fork gets exponentially tedious. It's not like LibreWolf's devs said "I want no AI and tracking" and poof, it's done.
If the worst happen and the cleaned up Firefox forks have to completely separate from the upstream, then any future improvement (and that would include spec conformance and fixes) will have to be manually cleared again and backported from a source tree that's more and more distinct over time. I have no idea about the resources available to LibreWolf, but that would end up meaning maintaining the whole thing instead of a fork. That's a big task.
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