Mozilla is adding a new set of artificial intelligence (AI) controls to Firefox that will allow users to block all generative AI features across the browser. Starting with the Firefox 148 update, which rolls out on February 24, users will see a dedicated “AI controls” section in desktop settings, including a single toggle to block both current and future AI enhancements.
The move stands out in a browser market where platforms increasingly enable AI features by default and make them difficult to fully disable. However, Mozilla’s approach essentially relies on opt-out rather than opt-in.
As a result, Firefox becomes one of the clearest examples of web browsers available today with an AI opt-out option, while also serving as a useful case study for examining what meaningful user choice around AI would actually require.
Why AI controls matter at the browser level
Browsers do not function as just another app. Instead, they operate as core internet infrastructure, shaping how people access information, navigate websites, translate content, and interpret links. As generative AI moves into this layer, decisions around defaults and controls begin to matter more than individual features.
AI features embedded at the browser level influence everyday behaviour at scale. Notably, they affect what users see before clicking a link, how content is framed, how tabs are organised, and which tools appear alongside web pages. In this context, control extends beyond convenience. It determines whether users actively choose AI or encounter it by default.
Mozilla’s decision to surface AI controls acknowledges this shift. At the same time, it exposes how most platforms continue to treat AI as a given rather than something users explicitly agree to adopt.
What Firefox’s AI controls actually do
According to Mozilla, the Firefox 148 update introduces a single place to manage AI preferences in the desktop browser. Users can turn on a global “Block AI enhancements” toggle that disables all current and future generative AI features. When enabled, Firefox will also stop showing prompts or reminders encouraging users to try AI features.
Additionally, users can manage individual AI features if they choose to keep some enabled. These include translations, AI-generated alt text in PDFs (alternative text used by screen readers and accessibility tools), AI-assisted tab grouping, link previews, and an AI chatbot in the sidebar.
This sidebar chatbot allows users to manually choose between multiple providers, including Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Le Chat Mistral. Once users set these preferences, Firefox preserves them across browser updates and allows changes at any time.
This approach builds on Mozilla’s earlier positioning of AI as an optional layer in Firefox, including its opt-in “AI Window” introduced in late 2025, which the company framed as a separate browsing mode rather than a default experience.
However, the browser-wide AI controls operate differently from Firefox’s opt-in AI Window. To explain, while the AI Window required users to actively choose an AI-enabled mode, the AI controls mean that generative AI features are present by default and users can opt out only after deployment.
This distinction matters because it shifts the burden of choice. Rather than asking users whether they want AI before it appears, the controls allow users to opt out after AI capabilities are already present.
Why real AI choice should be opt-in
Firefox’s new controls make it easier to turn AI features off. However, they also underline the limits of opt-out as a model.
Put simply, meaningful user choice would require AI to be opt-in by default. Users would not encounter AI features unless they actively choose to enable them.
In practice, a user opening the browser for the first time would see a standard, non-AI browsing experience. Searches would surface links first, without AI-generated overviews framing results. Pages would load as published, without summaries or automation layered on top.
If an AI feature could add value, the browser would introduce it contextually and ask first. For example, while researching a weekend trip, the browser could offer to summarise options or compare prices, clearly explaining what the AI would do before activating it. Users could enable it temporarily, turn it on permanently, or decline without losing access to links or core browsing functions.
Crucially, users would not need to hunt through settings to recover a non-AI experience. The responsibility would lie with the browser to ask before acting, not with users to undo defaults after the fact.
How Firefox compares to the rest of the browser market
Firefox’s AI controls stand out because most major browsers still do not offer a single, browser-wide way to disable AI features.
In Google Chrome, AI is moving in the opposite direction. Google has begun rolling out Auto Browse, an AI-powered agentic system that can navigate websites and assist with tasks such as research, form-filling, and comparisons. Rather than offering a global AI off switch, Google is embedding these agentic capabilities directly into Chrome’s core workflows, as previously reported by MediaNama.
Microsoft Edge similarly integrates Copilot across browsing and search, but manages AI through feature-level settings rather than a single, consolidated control. Users can disable Copilot and related AI features individually through Edge’s settings, but the browser does not offer a unified, browser-wide toggle to turn off AI as a category.
At the other end of the spectrum, AI-native browsers such as OpenAI’s Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet position AI as the primary interface for browsing and automation, rather than as an optional layer.
Against this broader industry backdrop, Firefox’s single control to block current and future AI features offers more visible user agency than most mainstream browsers. At the same time, it reinforces how low the prevailing baseline remains, with AI largely enabled by default and meaningful choice offered only after deployment.
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