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I am tired of turning features off. At this point I just want a boring browser that handles html/css/js, bookmarks, tabs (should sleep inactive tabs), plugins (for my chosen password manager and ad blocker), and page zoom. Those are the only features I actually use regularly.

That's it, I would be willing to make a one time purchase for that, no subscriptions... Ok, I could maybe be convinced for a subscription if it was a low yearly one.

The real question is whether this sets a precedent for how browsers should handle feature creep in general. Browsers have quietly accumulated telemetry, sponsored content, pocket integrations, VPN upsells — AI is just the latest.

What I like about Mozilla's approach here is the single toggle for all current and future AI. That's a genuine concession to user agency rather than the usual whack-a-mole of about:config flags. If every new feature category got this treatment (a clear, discoverable off switch), browsers would be in a much better place trust-wise.

The deeper issue is that Mozilla needs revenue diversification beyond the Google search deal, and AI features are their bet on that. So the incentive to make the toggle hard to find or slowly degrade the non-AI experience will always be there. I'd love to see them prove that wrong.

I keep meaning to make a guide "how to make firefox not suck" but I never get around to it.

It's a great browser, but I always forget the default settings are super stupid. Myself and power users all have it customized to the hilt.

It takes some serious work to get a new new FireFox install working nicely.

Why are there controls to turn off AI features, but no controls to turn on AI features?

I'm worried that this will require yet another config change on top of the already-ridiculous pile. (A listing was discussed 3 months ago at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45696752 )

This is a good start, but there is still no way to remove what is sure to be tremendous bloat caused by these features. I would prefer if we could opt to install (or not install) them to begin with.

Official announcement: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-controls/

Well, I'm looking forward to the new AI features and I use the AI sidebar regularly. Thanks Mozilla

I'd say browsers are a pretty good way of delivering models that run locally.

Currently, this tech is a sleeper because consumer hardware is not there yet.

Extensions, even websites, could benefit a lot from offering small models on demand and powering client-side features with them.

That is very different from a browser that embeds AI access through an API, and totally acceptable.

Soon: "Oopsie woopsie, we changed your expressed preferences... care to try again?"

Too little, too late. Switched to Brave and haven’t been happier. Firefox lost the plot years ago.

I think for Firefox to be successful in breaking free from google funding is to make gecko easily embeddable in other apps, ala WebKit / electron / etc. I think it would get more funding from a wider variety of independent parties that way. Unfortunately they seem to have gone in the opposite direction... Although I am sure they have their reasons.

Hope apps follow this lead—AI should be a toggle, not a default.

[dupe] Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-controls/ (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858492)

I don't want to download the code or models for those features in the first place, Mozilla.

It's incredible that even vscode had this before Firefox. How could they misjudge their audience so badly?

I would like to see them provide -AI-free builds ... just to be sure.

Wasn’t their translations project “pre AI”? That’s not running an LLM is it?

Waterfox is best way to get sane defaults.

That control would be LibreWolf, turns off the rest of the bad things too

too late I already stopped using it

Someone needs to make an ai blocker like add blocker

too late.

justthebrowser.com

I hate FF since some random morons decided it's a good thing on mobile to use the last used folder for bookmarks, instead of the mobile bookmarks folders.

I have several thousand curated bookmarks. And I only discovered too late the new "feature". Disrupted my former flow (mark on mobile, sort/categorize on desktop)

They could have made this configurable, but no... those smart asses knew better.

I have that GitHub issue where they initially discussed it for iOS bookmarked and screenshoted, to remind myself how utterly stupid some people are. I hate every sucker involved.

Of all the unnecessary AI integrations; firefox is the one I am least concerned or annoyed about. I will however be disabling anything AI related they introduce.

If accurate, this strikes me as something like malicious compliance.

> Translations, which help you browse the web in your preferred language.

Machine translation can be useful when you want to get the gist of something in a language you don't know.

> Alt text in PDFs, which add accessibility descriptions to images in PDF pages.

OCR? Okay...

> AI-enhanced tab grouping, which suggests related tabs and group names.

What is this feature even trying to do? It sounds like ill-defined trash.

> Link previews, which show key points before you open a link.

Or I could just click the link.

> AI chatbot in the sidebar, which lets you use your chosen chatbot as you browse, including options like Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Le Chat Mistral.

This is the thing that most people are probably complaining about. Lumping the other features in with it is a distraction.

Firefox should just spin up a separate "Firefox Lite" without all the "features".