Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Opt‑in vs Opt‑out and the “AI Kill Switch”

  • Core tension: many want AI disabled by default with a clear opt‑in; Mozilla is promising a global “AI kill switch” but still talking about AI features as opt‑in, which some see as contradictory.
  • Worries that “opt‑in” will really mean intrusive prompts, toolbar buttons, or settings that reset on updates, rather than a quiet, stable off state.
  • Some argue users rarely change defaults, so AI must ship on or aggressively prompted to get usage; others reply that this is exactly why it should be off.

Monetization, Business Model, and Trust

  • Many comments tie default‑on AI to money: sponsored answers, affiliate links, and AI as a new revenue stream once search payments plateau.
  • Strong concern that this compromises the “fiduciary” role people want from an assistant and repeats the ad/SEO enshittification pattern.
  • Mozilla’s new leadership is criticized for talking about adblocker revenue scenarios and past incidents (Pocket, experiments, data “not quite selling”) that eroded trust.

Local vs Cloud AI and Privacy

  • Some note Firefox has focused on local models for translation and possibly summarization, which they see as low‑risk.
  • Others point out earlier summarization used cloud providers, and any feature that can easily send page contents elsewhere is a privacy concern.
  • There is frustration that critics can’t always point to a concrete current privacy breach, but respond that trust and changing incentives are the real issue.

Usefulness and Scope of AI Features

  • Accepted or liked: local page translation, OCR‑style text extraction, accessibility features (alt‑text, TTS, voice input), smarter search/history.
  • Skepticism toward “agentic” features (form‑filling, booking, browsing on your behalf) as a security, correctness, and manipulation risk.
  • Many question whether page summarization and inline explanations justify the complexity, resource use, and hype.

Extensions, Forks, and Product Strategy

  • Strong camp says: browser should be a lean core; AI (and many other features) should be optional extensions or even separate “AI build” SKUs.
  • Others counter that integration is needed for performance, discoverability, and mainstream appeal.
  • Numerous forks (LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser, Waterfox, Zen, etc.) are cited as “AI‑free” or more privacy‑maximalist fallbacks—though some warn this fragments the ecosystem and doesn’t solve Mozilla’s sustainability problem.

Broader View on Mozilla and AI

  • One side: Firefox must embrace AI or be irrelevant as users come to expect it everywhere.
  • Other side: the unique selling point of Firefox should be not chasing every AI fad; focusing on core browsing, privacy, and extensibility would do more to retain and attract users than shipping yet another AI sidebar.