Firefox Forcing LLM Features

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Where the LLM Features Are and How to Disable Them

  • Users report LLM/AI integration showing up as:
    • Sidebar “chat” panel, including “Talk to OpenAI”.
    • Context menu entry: “Ask an AI chatbot”.
    • Smart tab-group naming and AI suggestions.
    • Mobile “Summarize Page” next to “Find in Page”.
  • Disabling paths:
    • Some options are in regular settings (e.g., “Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups”, “Page Summaries” on mobile, “On-device AI” under Add-ons).
    • Many others require about:config flags like browser.ml.enable, browser.ml.chat.enabled, browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled, etc.
    • Advanced users share user.js / NixOS wrapFirefox configs to hard-disable AI prefs, though others note this is “unsupported” and liable to be overridden.

Opt-In vs Opt-Out and User Experience

  • Strong frustration that new AI features ship enabled by default, with incomplete or non-obvious GUI controls.
  • Critics frame this as part of a long pattern: UI churn, hidden settings, and opt‑out telemetry undermining Firefox’s privacy branding.
  • Defenders argue:
    • Features are lightweight shortcuts (sidebar iframe, context-menu items) that do nothing unless explicitly used.
    • Many “AI” changes are no more intrusive than past defaults like tabs or TLS improvements.
  • Several commenters suggest a better UX:
    • Explicit post‑update prompt: “Here’s a new AI feature – enable?”
    • Clear, consolidated AI settings page instead of scattered about:config flags.
    • Bring back real onboarding/wizards to introduce features without hijacking workflows.

Usefulness of AI Features

  • Positive views:
    • Local (on-device) translation is widely praised as private and genuinely useful.
    • Some find sidebar chat and potential auto tab-grouping convenient and low-impact.
    • A few argue that blanket dismissal of AI is ideological rather than technical.
  • Negative views:
    • Others see LLMs as “garbage” or largely hype, and consider these workflows obviously extension territory rather than core browser features.
    • Concern that AI branding is being used for metric-driven feature pushes that don’t serve users.

Privacy, “Local” vs Hosted, and Performance

  • Confusion over what is truly local:
    • Mozilla marketing emphasizes on-device AI, but the chatbot selector surfaces only hosted providers unless local endpoints are manually enabled.
  • Some worry about CPU/battery usage; others note that most AI code only runs when explicitly invoked and is disabled on very low-RAM systems.
  • Debate over whether built-in translation counts as an “LLM” or just NMT; thread mostly treats it as LLM-based.

Alternative Browsers and Forks

  • Many mention switching or considering:
    • Firefox forks: Waterfox, LibreWolf, Tor Browser/Mull, Floorp, Zen.
    • Non-Gecko: Vivaldi (explicit “no AI in the browser”), plus niche/legacy options like Pale Moon or Dillo.
  • LibreWolf and similar forks are praised for “everything off by default” and shielding users from Mozilla’s product experiments.