We may not have a killswitch for AI as a whole, but Mozilla is giving users the ability to shut off AI in its Firefox browser (though it could have just not included those features in the first place). In a blog post, the company announced that it will include a toggle in the next version of Firefox that will turn off AI functionality. The feature will be available in Firefox 148, set to be released on February 24.
The feature will be accessible in the desktop browser settings, and will give users the ability to turn the lights out on all AI rather than granularly control which AI tools they are okay with. A toggle will be made available that, when turned on, will “block AI enhancements” that have been introduced by Mozilla, including things like AI translations, tab grouping recommendations, and in-browser AI chatbots (Firefox currently supports Anthropic’s Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Le Chat Mistral).
Users can currently manually control which features they want to use, but the toggle will give them the ability to just shut off everything—and make any future AI addition turned off by default. “This lets you use Firefox without AI while we continue to build AI features for those who want them,” the company said.
The move comes just a month after Mozilla took some serious heat for embracing AI. Back in December, the company announced that former General Manager of Firefox, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, was taking over as CEO. As part of the announcement that he was taking the reins, Enzor-DeMeo said that his plan was for Firefox to “evolve into a modern AI browser.”
While he acknowledged that “AI should always be a choice,” the fact that the company was choosing to inject AI into its flagship browser didn’t sit right with many of its diehard users. As browsers like Chrome and Brave have increasingly made AI front and center in the browsing experience, and companies like OpenAI have tried to weasel their way into the browser wars with their own AI browser projects, Firefox has mostly stuck to its guns as a privacy-focused, stripped-down browser that runs smoothly and supports a fair amount of customization.
Enzor-DeMeo’s announcement that AI would become central to Firefox’s future suggested the company was going to move away from its primary calling cards. This new toggle seems to be an attempt to mitigate those concerns. Unfortunately, even if users can opt out of these features, there doesn’t appear to be any way to stop every company from going all in on AI.
