this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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433
AI controls is coming to Firefox (blog.mozilla.org)
submitted 2 months ago by 1984@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world
132 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Starting with Firefox 148, which rolls out on Feb. 24, you’ll find a new AI controls section within the desktop browser settings. It provides a single place to block current and future generative AI features in Firefox.

They actually listened to the community, thats very nice.

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[–] blah3166@piefed.social 5 points 2 months ago (19 children)

people (not calling you out specifically) keep suggesting Librewolf like it isn't driving around a city in a tank. it gets the job done, sure, but most people will not tolerate its faults. Suggest something more in-between like Waterfox at least.

Suggesting Librewolf is like asking people to browse the web via Tor. it works, sure, but the inconvenience will make most people give up on gecko-based browsers and give into Google/chrome via Brave or the million other chrome-in-sheep's-wool browsers.

Let's recommend viable alternatives: https://www.waterfox.com/

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 months ago (11 children)

most people will not tolerate its faults

What faults?

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol -1 points 2 months ago (10 children)

Let's pull some obvious ones from the feature list!

  • Include only privacy respecting search engines like DuckDuckGo and Searx.
  • Always force user interaction when deciding the download location of a file
  • Disable autoplay of media.
  • Disable search suggestions and ads in the urlbar.
  • Disable Firefox Sync, unless explicitly enabled by the user.

For some other ones:

  • Logs you out of everything every time you close the browser.
  • If memory serves, it letterboxes by default. If it doesn't, ignore this line, I haven't used it in a while.

I'm not saying I don't like these features. I do. I only accept login cookies from services I host myself.

Most people will see that as an extreme annoyance the first time it happens, close the browser, uninstall it, and never try another Firefox fork again.

Most people care enough about privacy to want convenient ways to increase it. Most people do not care enough about privacy to have to log into Facebook every single time they restart their browser.

All of these are disableable, very few people will even bother looking into how to disable them. They will stop using the browser.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most website-breaking features can be re-enabled in the Settings menu, in a special Librewolf section

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Most people will see that as an extreme annoyance the first time it happens, close the browser, uninstall it, and never try another Firefox fork again.

I need FOSS people to understand that most people will not do that.

All of these are disableable, very few people will even bother looking into how to disable them. They will stop using the browser.

Also I did say that

[–] XLE@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You have no dispute from me there. I just figured I would mention it to people who are already knowledgeable enough that a few switches won't bother them - people already in this thread, probably not on the street

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 points 2 months ago

Ahh, fair. I generally see that as a justification for recommending it to the general public, sorry xD

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