After the controversial news shared earlier this week by Mozilla’s new CEO that Firefox will evolve into “a modern AI browser,” the company now revealed it is working on an AI kill switch for the open-source web browser.
On Tuesday, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo was named the new CEO of Mozilla Corporation, the company behind the beloved Firefox web browser used by almost all GNU/Linux distributions as the default browser.
In his message as new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo stated that Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software while remaining the company’s anchor, and that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
What was not made clear is that Firefox will also ship with an AI kill switch that will let users completely disable all the AI features that are included in Firefox. Mozilla shared this important update earlier today to make it clear to everyone that Firefox will still be a trusted web browser.
I hope people don't buy the story that the kill switch was part of the plan all along.
This is clearly the result of mozilla scrambling for a compromise after the backlash to their recent announcement.
Edit: In the blog post that sparked the discussion there's this sentence:
They didn't mention a browser-wide kill switch but I agree that that could be what they meant.
https://web.archive.org/web/20251216142601/https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/leadership/mozillas-next-chapter-anthony-enzor-demeo-new-ceo/
As far as i know, in the original interview that started this whole drama the new ceo mentioned that it would always be a choice and people would have the choice to opt out. All of this AI browser drama has been blown out of proportion by a very loud minority.
"Opt-out" means on by default. Installed alongside the parts that you use, and quite possibly embedded into the thing so thoroughly that the next automatic update or feature iteration will either switch it back on or remove the option entirely.
LLMs are controversial to say the least, and accomodation to those who are repulsed by their inclusion should not take the form of an option they need to jump through hoops to turn off.
Leaving them in but saying they can be turned off is like shipping pornography in your video game with a filter someone in the options you can enable. It's a pain in the ass at the least, and means that anyone making a moral or ethical stand against its inclusion has no choice but to go elsewhere.
Lol. I don't believe for a second that you were ever a Firefox user.
What makes you think that user preferences will be reversed on update? When was that ever an issue with Firefox? You can still use userChrome.css files from decades ago ffs.
Why should a feature like this need to be enabled for use? If you don't want to use it, don't use it. It's that simple. I never used the "Take Screenshot" option in Firefox, and honestly I would have removed it if I could, but I'm not going to throw a tantrum over it.
Just commenting to say I do love the Take Screenshot feature. Snipping Tool whenever I need to add drawings or highlights, but in-browser tool for most other cases of sharing stuff I see within a browser page.
Actually having tried it a bit now I can see that it does add some value. I like that it's aware of content boundaries. Still don't think I'd actually ever use it, but it's cool that it exists.
It's cute that you think anyone who would co-opt a beloved brand like Firefox to make an "AI browser" would be at all stopped by past habits.
Screen shots are not developed by massive art theft, nor does the creation of such a feature burn so many megawatts of data center energy that it makes Bitcoin farming look efficient.
Please share your data that lead you to that conclusion.
It's literally in their original post.