this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Firefox Will Ship with an "AI Kill Switch" to Completely Disable all AI Features - 9to5Linux (9to5linux.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ekZepp@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] BaraCoded@literature.cafe 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

They could save time and efforts and just not implement AI features

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 0 points 44 minutes ago* (last edited 44 minutes ago)

As much as i hate ai, and dont want it in any of my tools and programs, as a business it is a different thing.
I believe it is a bubble and it needs to burst so bad atm, but as a business you do not want to be left behind on the hype train. Its a risk you are taking if you dont, and that if the bubble doesnt burst ( which it might not ) your company is left in the dust and dies.

The more reasons i want it to pop, because businesses are not taking the risk (obviously) and its killing their program for me

[–] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 3 points 1 hour ago

I hope librewolf will have it killed by default

[–] Doorknob@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This is good enough for me. If they have an on boarding step/popup to say "Try our AI crap" and I have an option to say "No and don't ever bother me about this again", then it's fine.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You don't actually believe that "don't ever bother me about this again" is gonna be in the realm.of possibilities, do you? They'll accidentally "forget" your choice on every second update and pester you again. Fuck mozilla.

[–] el_abuelo@programming.dev 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What browser do you use?

I'm getting a bit tired of website incompatibility with Firefox but when the alternative is Chrome, I'm sticking with FF.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I am still stuck with Mozilla, but I hate the organisation nonetheless. :( It sucks that the web standards have been made so complicated (extensive) that it takes a major organisation to implement them in a browser.

On the phone I use DDG browser, but not happy with it because ublock origin isn't available.

On computer I am frustrated that debian repos do not yet have a privacy friendly fork, such as (from what I hear) waterfox or LibreWolf.

I am with you that Chrome-derivates are not an alternative at all.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 6 points 3 hours ago

"Kill switch" is a bit dramatic. It's an on or off toggle. Would be funny though to call every toggle a kill switch. "Yeah, using the kill switch on GPU acceleration may help with rendering on some systems."

"Use the kill switch for preventing Firefox of starting a new session without restoring the old tabs."

"Kill all of your browser data upon exiting Firefox by enabling the kill switch."

"Make Firefox your default browser by enabling the 'set as default browser kill switch'."

Extended to other UI interaction classes: "You don't like English? Kill it by using the battle royale language selector to choose only the one language you like."

[–] Maiznieks@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Waterfox for android and librewolf for desktop sounds good all of a sudden

[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

https://librewolf.net/

[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

This is the Mozilla Foundations version of "we dun goofed"

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 points 2 hours ago

Admitting fault is good, offering a way to fix it is better. We should applaud that that recognise, admit and want to remedy their mistake.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

How about you ship with it off by default and users can choose to turn it on? No? That won't serve your corporate goals, will it?

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 52 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Repeat after me. "There is no such thing as a non physical kill switch"

[–] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 1 points 1 hour ago

sudo rm -rf /*:

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

"Software controls are sufficient and hardware controls are expensive. Robust software protections are just as safe as hardware based lockouts." - people who have never heard of Therac-25

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 14 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Yep. Have no reason to trust it does what it says it does. Only way to prove that is for someone to dig into the browser while its running to debug/investigate/etc, things that are way above most peoples capability.

and even if it does what it says it does, no reason to believe that it wont default to on with the next update.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 4 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I'm just gonna say this. The former head of CIA had his laptop camera taped over. If he doesn't trust the digital toggle. Neither should you.

[–] 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Did he remove his microphone? That's the first thing I do with every new computer, physically remove the microphone. Microphones pick up much more data than cameras.

[–] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 1 points 1 hour ago

My microphone cant listen to me if pipewire makes it unusable

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

Hackers have already proven that your webcam can be activated and monitored without the indicator LED even turning on.

If hackers are capable of it, you know the CIA have been doing it for even longer.

[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 31 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

That's nice but it's not good enough. There needs to be a compile flag so the AI code isn't even included at all.

[–] LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

Why? I have plenty of disk space, a few unused binaries wont hurt me

[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 10 points 17 hours ago

And disabled by default. You're not consumer friendly until it is opt-in.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 6 hours ago

Add a compile flag!

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

i wish they would release a second browser instead of whatever this is

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

FF got lazy and never developed independant of googles revenue.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 1 points 3 hours ago

Which is a good thing, so FF can focus on bringing an good product and not worry about money. And Google gets to keep a competitor and not get extra rules to prevent their monopoly.

Only as long as FF keeps creating a good product of course.

[–] tinfoilhat@lemmy.ml 8 points 16 hours ago

At this point, even Brave that markets itself as "privacy first" is embracing AI. It seems like Firefox could differentiate itself from the rest of the market by being staunchly anti-AI, even in their development practices.

[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 27 points 20 hours ago

Or they could just ship it without the AI

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 27 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Would be nice if folks stopped calling LLMs AI. If they are true AI, they would be able to learn how a kill switch works and disable it

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 9 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (4 children)

We already have a term for "true" AI, it's AGI - Artifcial General Intelligence.

Both AGI and LLMs are types of artificial intelligence, as are things like OCR, speech to text systems, or chess engines, and a ton of other things, it's a vast field of computer science.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 31 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Until the bad press dies down and they feel like removing it

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 19 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

The Microsoft way:

"Why do you disable that"

"You're weird. Everyone uses that"

"You cannot disable that"

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[–] oftenawake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 day ago (9 children)

They could save themselves all that bullshit by just not bothering with any of it!

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[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well they're clearly not taking it all that seriously as it should be an Opt-IN feature, not an Opt-Out. They're banking on a majority non tech savvy userbase to not even bother disabling it. fine, whatever, that's on the user.

But it's just more Firefox bloat that I have zero desire to deal with. If I wanted bloat in my browser I'd go use Vivaldi.

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[–] veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It has to be opt-in or they can go fuck themselves

[–] papertowels@mander.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago

It's not mentioned in the reporting, but according to the source they say it is going to be opt-in (or at least something with opt-in in mind)

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