Thursday, February 5, 2026

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

‘Someone is actually reading the room’: Firefox just got an AI kill switch, and I hope other developers will follow its lead

  • Mozilla Firefox 148 will soon get an AI kill switch
  • This addition can disable all AI features in one go
  • You’ll also be able to disable AI tools individually, if you like

Firefox is often chosen by people who dislike the direction Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers are taking. And as browser makers rush to stuff their products with as much artificial intelligence (AI) as possible, Firefox is taking a different tack, introducing an “AI kill switch” that disables all AI features in the Mozilla app.

In a blog post about the decision, Mozilla says users will get the feature with the Firefox 148 update, which is set to arrive on February 24. Not only will this let you manage individual AI features within the browser, but you’ll also be able to switch them off entirely with a single click.

Aside from the all-in-one kill switch, you’ll be able to choose whether to enable or disable the following features: translations, alt text in PDF files, AI-powered tab grouping, link previews, and the AI chatbot that’s located in the browser’s sidebar.

Mozilla caused something of a backlash late in 2025 when it announced it would bring AI features to the Firefox browser. Although these run on your device – meaning your information is not sent to any company’s cloud servers – many users were unhappy with the advent of AI features in a browser like Firefox, which has often sought to differentiate itself from rival offerings.

Banish AI from your browser

Mozilla’s latest move seems to have met with a positive reaction from some sections of the internet. Responding to the announcement on Reddit, user jpsreddit85 quipped, “Says a lot about the future state of AI when the most requested feature is to disable it.” User David-J, meanwhile, commented that “Someone is actually reading the room.”

As a long-time Firefox user, this feels like the right move by Mozilla. AI is controversial at the best of times, but especially so among Firefox users, who pride themselves on their independence and generally seem less on board with AI than many internet users.

Adding AI to Firefox was always going to be a risky move by Mozilla, given the userbase’s sentiments – adding a way to block it entirely is a sensible way to win back support.

That said, this seems to be a fairly isolated move in the world of web browsers. Chrome has a near-monopoly on browsers, and its creator, Google, a major AI investor, has added numerous AI features to the app. Microsoft and Apple, makers of Edge and Safari, are equally committed to AI.

Very few browsers have added an AI kill switch like Firefox's, though privacy-focused alternatives like Brave and DuckDuckGo can also be customized in this way. That all means that if you’re sick of AI in your browser, there are options available to you – you just need to avoid the biggest players.

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