Firefox is Getting a New AI Browsing Mode

Lounge Linux lounge
42

Clearly written by an AI chatbot.

2 Likes
43

I’ve dropped Firefox for this an am now using ‘Librewolf’. I hope the developers look at this ‘AI’ crap in closer detail i.e. (pro’s and con’s). I’m not interested in AI and think this crap is being forced down everyone’s throats. Just my thoughts. . .

Rich :wink:

3 Likes
44

I switched from Firefox to Vivaldi some weeks ago. Never thought that this will happen, but it happened … :thinking:

45

Yep that’s AI!

46

It’s just a reality here. You guys don’t use AI to access information on the web? Where do you find the time for that? I’m not going back spending 15 minutes reading 30 different search results when I can be done in 5 minutes reading 2 relevant results with AI. I’m sorry.

47

@Schlaefer , that’s not the point. The point is that many of us want to make the decision when and how to use AI. At least in FF-based browsers there are options to turn off automatic AI, hidden and snuck in though they may be.

You can choose to use AI all the time. I choose not to. That’s what open source is all about – the freedom to choose.

1 Like
48

Like who cares as long as you can opt out?

4 Likes
49

Correct.
15 minutes to to read 30 different results???
Maybe your search terms could use some refining?

50

Where do you “opt out“ at?
Currently, there is no “switch“ to turn AI in FF off.

51

If I knew exactly what I was searching for I didn’t need to search for it, eh?

52

? Could you provide an example of a search that non AI search engines don’t do well for you? I’m interested in seeing what that would look like. Thx!

53

@rich52 I’d like to install librewolf-bin and try it out. Will it use the .mozilla directory and will it keep me saved password and bookmarks?

grgaud

54

For me it’s all about choice. If I can disable/enable a feature then I’m good with that.

1 Like
55

Yes, but you can change settings with “about:config” or user.js config file :

// Disable AI stuff
user_pref("browser.ml.enable", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.menu", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.page", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled", false);
user_pref("extensions.ml.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.search.visualSearch.featureGate", false);
56

Most of those settings changed back to defaults at some point for me, probably through an update.

WaterFox and LibreWolf have most all those settings and more disabled by default.

Here’s the latest list of Settings I’ve found that various people have recommended to disable…

 ("browser.ml.enable", false);
 ("browser.ml.enabled", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.enable", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.hideLocalhost", false);???
 ("browser.ml.chat.menu", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.nimbus", ???
 ("browser.ml.chat.page", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.shortcuts", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.shortcuts.custom", false);
 ("browser.ml.chat.sidebar", false);
 ("browser.ml.linkPreview.nimbus", false);
 ("browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled", ???
 ("browser.ml.linkPreview.shift", false);
 ("browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled", false);
 ("browser.search.visualSearch.featureGate”, false); 
 ("browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled", false);
 ("browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled", false);
 ("browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.mlEnabled", false);
 ("extensions.ml.enabled", false);
 ("places.semanticHistory.featureGate", false);
 ("pdfjs.enableAltText", false);
 ("sidebar.revamp", false);
57

Switched back to Firefox 147, yesterday and don’t have any KI stuff, I think. Disabled the KI-Chatbot in the sidebar and I’m still using DuckDuckGo as search provider instead of Perplexity. There is nothing more I can see.

58

Sadly, that’s not opt out, that’s mess with your settings until you’ve turned it all off.

1 Like
59

I’m a little reluctant to disable all these things without knowing exactly what they do. I don’t want to misconfigure my Firefox installation… :thinking:

60

Yep, no way to turn off AI to date in FF. From a Mozilla team member on Reddit…

It is being worked on as we speak :) Currently planned to be in Fx 148

Found explanations for most all of those settings on several different Sites. I’ve disabled all of them except the ones followed by question marks above and haven’t found any issues after doing that.

2 Likes
61

I don’t really know myself, for example, Betterfox use only these :

user_pref("browser.ml.enable", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.menu", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled", false);`