Mozilla adds AI kill switch to Firefox • The Register

Mozilla has decided that if AI is going to live in your browser, you should at least be able to kill it when it gets annoying. The browser maker this week announced a new set of AI controls for Firefox, headlined by a global kill switch that lets users disable every current and future AI feature in one go.

The change, rolling out with Firefox 148 later this month, is Mozilla's most direct admission that not everyone is thrilled about having generative AI stapled onto their everyday tools. In a blog post announcing the move, Mozilla acknowledged the widening gap between AI boosters and everyone else. "AI is changing the web, and people want very different things from it," wrote Adjt Varma, head of Firefox, adding that its goal is to give users "clear, simple choices" about how much AI they want in their browser – including none at all.

Those choices will live in a new AI controls section in Firefox's desktop settings. From there, users can selectively turn off features such as AI-powered translations, link previews, and the browser's chat integrations, or flip a single switch to block everything, including tools Mozilla hasn't shipped yet. As Varma put it, the idea is to let people "use Firefox without AI while we continue to build AI features for those who want them."

It's a refreshingly unsubtle stance, and one that lands just days after a similar bout of AI skepticism elsewhere in browser land, with Vivaldi's latest release leaning away from generative features entirely. Google to foist Gemini pane on Chrome users in automated browsing push Cursor used agents to write a browser, proving AI can write shoddy code at scale Just the Browser claims to tame the bloat without forking Coming soon: We interrupt this ChatGPT session with a very special message from our sponsors CEO Jon von Tetzchner summed up the mood, telling The Register: "Basically, what we are finding is that people hate AI."

Instead of chasing the chatbot trend, Vivaldi chose to focus on privacy and usability, betting that fewer "smart" features might actually make for a better browser. Zoom out a little further, and the pattern gets harder to ignore. Even Microsoft, which has spent the past year stuffing Copilot into just about everything, is reportedly reconsidering how far that strategy should go in Windows 11. According to reports, Redmond plans to streamline or even remove some AI features where they don't make sense.

What's shifting isn't the technology so much as the confidence behind it. After two years of being told that AI was the future and we'd all learn to love it, vendors are now discovering an awkward truth: a number of users would prefer an off switch and a quiet browser. Mozilla's kill switch isn't the end of AI in browsers, but it does suggest the hype has met resistance. Sometimes, the most user-friendly feature is an off button – preferably one that actually works. ®