Firefox Community Forum

I know with the implementation of this new CEO, he plans to add more garbage AI to the browser we've all been using to avoid all the new AI tool crap just to steal our data and sell it to a third-party. I have been a long, dedicated user to Mozilla Firefox since I was in middle school and played games with my friends, I'm an adult now and have never particularly been interested in using Chrome or any of the hundreds of Chromium based browsers. I've always stayed dedicated to Mozilla Firefox because the browser was specifically made to be user friendly and open-source. If you take that away I won't be using Mozilla Firefox anymore, I will just move to the next open source project for a browser.

I can't wait until this AI bubble bursts so we don't have to deal with any of this garbage any longer.

Do you have a set date to when you're going to be implementing this big change so I can have a proper funeral for one of the best browsers to be taken outback and put down into the AI slop this new CEO wants it to be?

I use Firefox specifically because I appreciate(d) the flexibility and the privacy. Default AI makes it significantly more difficult to customize the browser to my preferences (ie, zero AI anywhere) and threatens the privacy that Firefox is known and recognized for. This is an absolutely incomprehensible decisions; it is no longer a "trustworthy" browser if it incorporates AI. Why ruin a good thing??

I strongly disagree with the proposed AI-centric direction for Firefox. I already disable any current AI features in this browser and disagree with them being there at all. I am firmly anti-AI in the form/use that is most prevalent. I don't want an AI chatbot or AI summaries. AI is not a replacement for human thought. It cannot perceive. It cannot understand. It cannot communicate. Even if it produces a convincing enough mimicry of those things to convince some people that it is capable of doing those things. It's like that IBM training slide from 1979 that says "A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision." Firefox's blog entry about these proposed updates is full of nothing but glittering generalities, just buzz-phrases like "you're in control" and "a better browser" and "trusted companion." AI is not a trusted companion. AI is hyper-advanced autocorrect. And with AI's harshness on the environment (requires astronomical and unsustainable amounts of water) and on the browser itself (slows it down considerably and makes it more vulnerable to security breaches like prompt injection attacks), I just don't think "everybody else is doing AI" is a valid reason to override the main reason most Firefox users use it (because of its lack of AI features and focus on privacy). I'm a long-time user of Firefox and I have really enjoyed it, but one of the biggest issues I have had with it in the last few years is disabling all the AI garbage features that keep getting sneaked in. If AI use or AI-driven features become a substantial part of Firefox, I won't be using it anymore.

I do not care it it’s optional. I do not care if there is a “kill switch”. Firefox should not be wasting it’s time on these features in the first place, as it has been nothing but an active detriment to the user experience on every platform on which it has been implemented. Nobody asked for this. Nobody wants this. I installed Firefox because I saw that it was different from other browsers, mainly in the way that it was not following the latest tech fads straight off a cliff. If the new leadership decides to change that, then I see no reason to stick around.

Is there a way to turn off the “shake for AI summary” function on IOS? It doesn’t add anything to my experience, and more often than not, I end up accidentally shaking my phone and getting a summary I didn’t ask for.

If there’s a way to completely turn off the AI features, i’d like that too I’d prefer if my browser didn’t summarize the websites I visit in a way that can be inaccurate or lie to me.

Mozilla, please just remove these features entirely. If we want AI, we can go to ChatGPT or another website, I just don’t want it added into everything I use all of a sudden.

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

I've been using Firefox for years because more popular browsers like Chrome and Edge have anti-features I dislike. In recent years, however, it feels like Mozilla has been more eager to follow trends set up by it's larger competitors even when those trends seem destructive to the principles that used to be at the core of this project. AI is the final straw for me. I don't understand why I would even use Firefox over Chrome if both are full of AI anyways. Even if AI wasn't a deal-breaker for me, I'm worried Firefox will make similar decisions later. I want out.

Is there any good and maintained alternatives to Firefox? Something like how Firefox was just a handful of years ago? Maybe a fork of an old version?

I'm sick of AI infecting everything. I JUST started moving to firefox to escape the shoving down my throat of AI and ADs that plagues everything. And now to hear that the new CEO wants to shove down even more AI? That's infuriating. No one really wants this, the people that do have something to gain, ulterior motives or don't understand just how bad it is. Not to mention the data scraping that I don't consent to.

I've seen that this browser has potential, that has a relative ease of access for people to get the experience they want. But this AI shoving is ruining that, and it's driving users away. I do not like having to jump through hoops to avoid AI but I will. It's slowing down the browser and causing even more lack of privacy! We already have so little in this modern area, it's terrible to do more.

The sad part is, is that I know there are people that run the browser that don't want this. It's the people up top who put their money into AI, thinking it's the next big thing, and are trying to make it that so their money doesn't just get yanked away. When it will anyway. AI, generative specifically, is awful. I hate the AI overviews, I hate AI 'support' in everything. In social media, in online shopping, in just damn chats. I refuse to use it. It's horrible, it's nothing but bloatware.

So I hope that this new guy will actually listen to the people that use the browser and stop it with his stupid AI stuff. There is NO room for AI browsers, there never will be room for them. And I will NEVER trust an AI browser or whatever stuff an AI pulls up, because they will pull up nonsense. They will pull up what you WANT to hear, not the actual facts. Do better, this is a disappointment.

Please don't put AI into firefox. I moved to this browser to get away from the google privacy violations. I don't want to have to move to a different browser again.

go tell your new CEO that nobody wants AI in firefox. do this every day until it gets into his thick CEO skull, i know it might take a while because CEOs are fundamentally braindead but please, do it for us. in the meantime, i will look for another browser to use if you keep shovelling this garbage into firefox.

I did not ask for to have intrusive AI slop put in our browsers.

I literally switched over to Firefox for very specific reasons. I stopped using other browsers, such as chrome and other chromium based browsers, because they eventually got filled with AI bloatware slop that didn't really add anything to how we use the internet browsers

Firefox literally had something going on that stood out from rest of the market, and now you're willing enough to throw it all away for short-term gains to be made off the AI bubble? Firefox could've been the market leader in having a simple browser with no AI slop or general bloat added.

Not to mention the fact that AI is just straight up invasive as its basically just thinly veiled attempt to get more sensitive data harvested off users, to produce more money without paying compensation for the time used on the browser. In addition to opening up vectors for identity theft and fraud.

Once again, why is it absolutely necessary to have AI in the browser?

This wave of so-called AI (really nothing of the sort) is a nightmare for security, usability, performance and efficiency and if you keep forcing it on us I'll be jumping ship, probably for whichever fork excising it all gets popular.

I've been using first the Mozilla suite and then Firefox (since it was called Firebird, even) for twenty years now, don't do this to the browser I love.

[article] This article claims there is an "AI Controls" section in Settings. This is not found in v 147.03 (up to date) for Mac. Please let me know how to disable all AI in Firefox.

For a long time I have been using Firefox, because of its performance and customizability. I detest that modern companies have to shove AI into any program even where it is uterly useless. I already don't like the current AI that Firefox has already added. Firefox has alreay lost a lot of my trust in recent years. Should Firefox continue with adding more AI features, I will be switching to a better browser.

Hi. Not sure how to tag this. I've turned off as many ai features in Firefox as I am able. I'm practically begging for this company not to add more. It slows the browser, it wastes energy, and to be honest? I don't want summaries of things I'm looking up, I don't want to be recommended apps or features, or chat to a bot, or have my sentences finished for me/help with writing beyond spell check. Google had a decent spelling and grammar checker and then they added gen ai garbage and now it sucks! PLEASE stop adding ai features to Firefox. It makes browsing impossible.

I hopped onto firefox the same way many others did- looking for a browser that didn't have the ties to privacy issues or baggage of bloatware, and especially since all of the other browsers are changing things to focus on AI. And now that firefox is joining that chain I wonder why I even bother trying to get attached.

Like, on the one hand I can somewhat see where the CEO is coming from, everyone's getting a cool new toy and you want in on that, that's understandable. But with something as half-baked, destructive, and actively contentious as AI, I wonder the true value of playing with things like that.

In fact, have you SEEN what's going on with AI? Microsoft's shoved Copilot into every aspect of windows 11, their PCs, their browser, their marketing, and what did they get? Regret! They regretted that decision as consumers aren't happy with that decision!

Even OpenAI, the granddaddy of all LLM stuff around, they're not even going to be profitable until 2030. Yes, that's 4 years away. No, I sincerely HOPE they don't last that long.

Why Mozilla is picking this decision? FOMO, I presume, but like. It doesn't have to be this way, it's allowed to be a small bastion where people can actually pick what I want out of it. I dislike the fact Perplexity got added to my search functions, but I'm happy that I could turn it off.

For the love of god Montresor, don't lock us in here.

Good Evening,

I switched to Firefox as my primary browser from Chrome due to Chrome's instance on forcing unnecessary and intrusive AI features onto the platform, and their revoking support for ad blockers.

Anthony Enzor-DeMeo's quote from his recent blog post announcing that Firefox "will evolve into a modern AI browser" is a huge red flag for me. I do not care how much he may promise the features will be "something people can easily turn off", I do not trust it will remain that way. Mozilla will have a bad quarter and suddenly those won't be optional features anymore. I have seen it happen with other tech companies and it's infuriating that Mozilla seems to be merrily skipping down the same path.

In addition to the AI bloat Mozilla seems to insisting they need, Enzor-DeMeo recently said that "He could begin to block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that'd bring in another $150 million, but he doesn't want to do that." To even joke about that is an astounding misstep. I specifically joined Firefox to be able to use an ad blockers.

I've enjoyed my time with Firefox and have recommended it to friends in the past, but I have changed browsers before. If Firefox continues to forge ahead with these frankly absurd changes, I will have to do so again.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/leadership/mozillas-next-chapter-anthony-enzor-demeo-new-ceo/

https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo

I had switched to Firefox some time ago because of the privacy-invading AI that Google and Microsoft were implementing at the time, and it appeared Mozilla had their consumers' interests in mind when it came to privacy and performance. I suppose even they are willing to shoot themselves in the foot with the market failure that is generative AI, despite the recent reports about Copilot's abysmal sales proving that this maneuver is incredibly short-sighted.

Not only are these AI "features" enabled by default upon updating, the options to disable each of them are all hidden away in the about:config page. On top of that, having these options enabled leads to worse performance overall, and the breach of privacy inherent to these features is quite worrisome as well.

The best step now is to remove these features completely. If Mozilla won't remove them, they should at least have them disabled by default, making them opt-in as opposed to the opt-out situation currently in place. Perhaps they could be listed as proper options somewhere in about:preferences so that people don't have to comb through the about:config list?

I know I would appreciate not having to switch browsers again, and I'm sure plenty of users would like to have their privacy respected as well. We don't want to see this browser become as terrible to use as other big-name brands. If Mozilla keep pushing these invasive features, we will find something else to use.

If Firefox becomes an "AI browser" as it's new CEO says I will switch to another browser. The privacy and environmental problems alone are enough for me to warrant this change, to say nothing of how it's slowing the browser itself down and making it worse. I'm sick and tired of AI shoving itself into every single aspect of life, taking things that already worked fine on their own and making them worse for no reason, in addition to ruining the planet and encroaching more and more on the privacy of everyday folks like myself. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo's insistence that we should "trust" this hypothetical version of the browser is frankly sickening, and everyone involved in this scam should be ashamed.

I use Firefox and recommend it to others entirely because it's proven to be one of the browsers with the least privacy concerns and bloat. Mozilla's recent intention to make Firefox a "modern AI browser" and riddle it with unwanted software additions ruins everything users love about the browser. If this AI integration moves forward, I'll be switching from Firefox to another browser.

AI is using my data and serving up slop from what it gathers. I'd like to keep as much AI slop out of my Firefox web browser as possible, is there information available on how to block AI features and results from my Firefox?