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.

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.

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

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.

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 )

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

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

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?"

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

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

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.

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

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

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

justthebrowser.com

too late I already stopped using it

too late.