Did you read this yet.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot#:~:text=How%20to%20remove%20the%20AI%20chatbot%20shortcut%20from%20your%20Firefox%20sidebar&text=%2C%20select%20Browser%20Layout%20and%20choose%20Show%20sidebar.&text=the%20settings%20button-,.,in%20the%20Firefox%20tools%20section.

Personally I vote for yanking it out of the main browser altogether, so people have to actively choose to install the AI chatbot add-on. But my question is about actions I can take myself.

besides removing the AI chatbot shortcut from the sidebar there is also a way to remove it.

from bottom of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot

In the sidebar, choose the settings icon (a Gear icon). In the Customize sidebar panel, uncheck the AI chatbot box in the Firefox tools section.

Those instructions are quoted from that FAQ page which last updated before the offending shortcut reappeared and the toggle findable via those instructions disappeared.

Looks like it's actually disable-able by going to about:config then browser.ml.chat.enabled and toggling it to false. Thank you all for your assistance.

It is a sign of how little people want this slop that the only way to get it in front of some of us is to have it there by default and there's no obvious way to turn it off - the "You can also select the more menu Three dot menu framed from the AI chatbot panel and select Hide shortcut when selecting text" in the official help doesn't work because there's no three dot menu here (presumably you have to start using it first) - in the much more accessible Settings.

Dear Mozilla, the slop providers had better be paying you an awful lot of money to push this stuff.

I know where the toggle in the UI to disable the shortcut feature is, but it toggles itself back on. Trying the about:config option now.

I already made the change in about:config and yet just now some annoying AI popup appeared while I was trying to read a social media post. Apparently the the about:config tweak does not disable AI in Firefox.

No one on this whole planet is asking for AI, the last organization in the world I ever expected to put it in my face would be Mozilla.

How do I COMPLETELY eradicate AI from my browser FOREVER?