this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Mozilla finally landed today the long-anticipated AI Kill Switch controls for Firefox, which let users strip the open-source web browser of any AI-powered features, and you can test it right now in Firefox Nightly.

In December 2025, when Mozilla appointed its new CEO, the company developing the popular Firefox web browser revealed that it was working on an AI kill switch that would let users completely disable all the AI features that had been included in the past few releases, estranging more and more loyal users.

Now, the AI kill switch is finally a reality as it landed today with the latest Firefox Nightly update. The implementation is called “AI Controls” and can be found in Firefox’s settings as a standalone section. From there, users can toggle a setting called “Block AI Enhancements” to remove any AI features.

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[–] finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think you misunderstood what I said, or perhaps I wasn't clear. I'm saying the killswitch should have been in place from day one when they started implementing ai features.

That said, Mozilla seems to fundamentally misunderstand their market. The type of people who use firefox are generally pretty tech-savvy, and care about things like privacy and control over their experience. Rather than hone in on features that their users want, they have hitched their wagon to the ai hype train in an attempt to favor curry with the masses.

[–] 8uurg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Privacy concerns are valid when an external server needs to be queried, like if you were to use DeepL or Google Translate for this stuff, or for any LLM related muck, but they have been accounting for this already by making things work locally. For example, translations performed fully on device, and are an example of a feature I wanted.

Like many here, the entire AI browser idea doesn't appeal to me at all, but I also struggle to come up with 'features their users want' if I take myself as an example. I have previously used Vivaldi, and while it is much more full featured, it doesn't add any features that I actually end up using frequently.