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

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@ArneBab it doesn't just disable all existing feature, it also auto-disables future AI features, or 'blocks' them from even appearing in the UI.

[waxingtonknee@mastodon.org.uk]

@firefoxwebdevs Too little. Too late.

[alahmnat@woof.tech]

@mike @firefoxwebdevs "AI is changing the web" is also certainly one way of describing the unending tide of SEO-optimized slop coating every surface that's made using the web as a source of information and knowledge virtually impossible.

[mike@sauropods.win]

@alahmnat @firefoxwebdevs Precisely.

[signez@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs That's awesome, but honestly that feature should have landed months ago. It's sad that it took so long to deliver such a 'simple' feature — it eroded trust needlessly

I understand it's hard to ship stuff, but we are talking about a toggle in preferences, so it was really frustrating not to see this shipped earlier.

Also, is that 'scare screen' really necessary? It's the same kind of trick we're always complaining about with FAANG products…

[miller@ruhr.social]

@mkj @firefoxwebdevs policy example:

{
"policies": {
"DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
"DisableTelemetry": true,
"DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
"FirefoxHome": {
"SponsoredStories": false,
"SponsoredTopSites": false,
"Stories": false
},
"GenerativeAI": {
"Enabled": false
},
"SearchEngines": {
"Remove": [
"Perplexity"
]
}
}
}

[ar_do@mstdn.social]

@firefoxwebdevs love it! Its a refreshing alternative to Edge's "shove Copilot down users thought at every opportunity" switch, which I think has only one setting

[ar_do@mstdn.social]

@firefoxwebdevs that being said, I actually love having local translation built into thr browser. It seems like the perfect use case for small language models that can be run on most laptops / desktop pcs today. Don't see a need to have the default setting to be off for that

[plwt@mstdn.social]

@raymaccarthy @firefoxwebdevs You have never needed to use about:config. You can still quite happily browse the web using Firefox without going into about:config.

[mgeins@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs what's about mozconfig.cfg build option?

[dveditz@infosec.exchange]

@ArneBab @firefoxwebdevs

some people really like those other features though. Translation is one of our most requested features ever, and we couldn't implement prior to local AI. We weren't going to ship your web pages to some web service so they could see what you browse. But to other folks "AI is AI" and they want it off.

Feedback in Nightly is how we figure out if there are too many options or not enough.

[oay@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs the tiny minority of people who choose to use firefox at all dont want AI. it should be off by default if its being shoehorned in anyway, but since mozilla doesnt care the least they could do is not neuter the name.

"kill switch" bites, "AI controls" licks

EDIT: misread formally as formerly, still dont like this

[mgeins@mastodon.social]

@miller @mkj @firefoxwebdevs easy way would be to use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enterprise-policy-generator from https://mastodon.social/@s_hentzschel@agenedia.com

[mausmalone@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs Do you know if there will be a popup to let users know when it launches? (Like a product tour "what's new" type of thing?)

[thejacenallen@mastodon.social]

@firefoxwebdevs boooo. AI shouldnt even be in the browser. Thats what the people told you.

[tay@tech.lgbt]

@madduci @firefoxwebdevs afaik the default is already opt in in a way - for example, the link summary feature asks you if you want to enable summarisation before actually doing anything.

the point of the block is a browser wide, 'don't even ask' toggle

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@plwt @firefoxwebdevs
The word "happily" is out of context.

I have used Chrome (Android/ChromeOS)_, Edge (windows), IE (various cursed versions on Windows) and Safari (Apple Things) to "browse the web" and get a different browser such as Firefox, seamonkey, Vivaldi, Waterfox, Chromium and others.

I'd be on Vivaldi if about:config didn't exist. The only reason I'm not is more flexible script blocking on Firefox to suit TheGuardian web news.

[blogdiva@mastodon.social]

NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS AI BULLSHIT!!!

you’re traitors to the open web cause. this should have been an extension, not a complete integration in the browser.

@firefoxwebdevs

[firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social]

@ArneBab but it doesn't enable future feature by default.

You're blocking the entry points to these features, so they cannot be enabled.

[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