AI Controls (formerly 'kill switch') are landing in today's Firefox Nightly, and will land with Firefox 148 later this month.

[plwt@mstdn.social]

@raymaccarthy @firefoxwebdevs Keen to understand more - why do you need to block scripts to be able to view the Guardian website?

What happens when you try to view the page without this?

Is there any error message?

#fxhelp

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@raymaccarthy @plwt fwiw Vivaldi does have AI features like translation, and it even sends text to the cloud to perform that translation.

[ambiguous_yelp@veganism.social]

@firefoxwebdevs

Immediately restore the work of japanese language translators that you paved over with AI slop

AI Controversy Forces End of Mozilla’s Japanese SUMO Community

The SUMO Japanese team quits en masse, accusing Mozilla’s AI system of erasing years of community translation work.

Linuxiac (linuxiac.com)

#Firefox #Mozilla #Japanese #GenAI #AISlop #LLM

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@tay @madduci correct! You're blocking the entry points for these features, and features like it in future.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@mausmalone I don't think so. But of course it will be mentioned in release notes. We're not exactly being quiet about it.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@ArneBab We're stumbling on the wording here. 'Enabled' to many people means the feature is active. That's why we went with 'available' for features that aren't actively running, but their entry points are available.

[kittyjynx@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs AI crap like this has driven me back to using Lynx in the terminal for most of my browsing until I can find a browser not infected with Google, Apple, and now Firefox code. If I do need a graphic web browser I just us IronWolf and don't log into your account. I used to be a huge evangelist for your browser and other tools but no more. We have told you we don't want this, we want to support you and tell our friends to use you yet you make it impossible. For "Bob"'s sake LISTEN

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@mkj the next major ESR release is 153.0esr. That will include all features between Fx140 and Fx153 and is scheduled to ship on 2026-06-21.

In terms of policy: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2005805

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@plwt @firefoxwebdevs
Because for security I block all 3rd party scripts that don't result in site breaking. Not about adverts per-se.

The most likely route for malware today is 3rd party scripts. BBC & CNN have served them. That it often blocks adverts is a side effect. I'm not caring about adverts the actual site hosts.

Vivaldi's blocker is all or nothing, so with script blocking there are pop-up banners and the fold V or close X is missing.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@enthusiast101 huh, I'm not seeing that error. Could it be because of an extension?

[sarah@sosial.link]

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social

Won't see features

I've seen that before with Brave. Their "complete removal of Leo" means "Remove UI elements from the user".

I am not convinced.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@ar_do personally, I agree, but we'd have been accused of sneaking AI in if we didn't https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115849251057488746

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@firefoxwebdevs @plwt
I've not used Vivaldi since last year:

Vivaldi AI – Qwant Search

Fast, reliable answers and still in trust: Qwant does not store your search data, does not sell your personal data and is hosted in Europe.

Qwant (www.qwant.com)

They claim to not have AI.

I use copy / paste to https://libretranslate.com/ if I need translation.

There is no Cloud. Only other people's servers!

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@sarah I'm not sure what we can do to convince you other than hold the promise over time.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@raymaccarthy @plwt it's easy to say you don't have AI if you define it so it doesn't include features you have.

Folks consider translation to be generative AI https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115849251057488746

[sarah@sosial.link]

@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social

If you don't disregard overwhelmingly negative feedback regarding AI in Firefox while presentig a dead thread by like three people as "popular request for incorporating AI in Thunderbird" I think there's a possibility to rebuilt trust over time.

[emma@orbital.horse]

@firefoxwebdevs the default should be all of this turned off, without the passive aggressive UI.

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@firefoxwebdevs @plwt
What Vivaldi says or does is irrelevant.

Mozilla did a stupid survey that didn't actually ask if people wanted AI or ML at all.

Most people just want a browser. No need for an AI off switch as there is no reason to have ANY ML or AI of ANY kind in the first place.
Mozilla by any sane metric has been making Thunderbird and Firefox worse for years. I used them practically from release on XP till 2016.
I used Waterfox with Classic Theme restorer for a while after GUI bork.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@emma note that the models aren't downloaded & used until you opt-in to one of the features.

The 'block' here removes those opt-in entry points, and any like it in future.

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@raymaccarthy @plwt a lot of people find things like translation a valuable part of the platform, and makes the web more accessible - including me.

I personally think opening up more of the web via translation is a important feature to have in the browser.