Post B0W1vC5cwp5UPgOX7A by abucci@buc.ci
(DIR) More posts by abucci@buc.ci
(DIR) Post #B0W03bhlOa5SGW7I1o by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-22T20:43:55Z
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I'm glad to add Firefox to the list of apps I have to constantly check to make sure they haven't turned back on all the anti-features I disabled.#firefox #mozilla #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #SmartIsSurveillance #tech #dev #web
(DIR) Post #B0W1JTmeiIiIHnXMwq by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-22T20:58:04Z
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Based on the answers to this StackOverflow question and this blog post, here are the 16 (!!!) AI-related settings in new versions of Firefox that you'll want to disable/set to false, and that might be turned back on with each update:- browser.aiwindow.enabled- browser.ml.chat.enabled- browser.ml.chat.menu- browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge- browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge- browser.ml.chat.page- browser.ml.chat.shortcuts- browser.ml.chat.sidebar- browser.ml.enable- browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled- browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled- browser.ml.smartAssist.enabled- browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled- browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled- extensions.ml.enabled- sidebar.notification.badge.aichat Enter "about:config" in the browser bar and then search for each of these and disable them, turn them off, or set them to false as appropriate.Depending on which version of Firefox you have you may not have all these configuration options.#firefox #mozilla #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #SmartIsSurveillance #tech #dev #web #NoAI #AICruft #antifeatures
(DIR) Post #B0W1vBLBjTwO5efRjM by gilbert31@mastodon.online
2025-11-22T21:01:43Z
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@abucci You can use the Betterfox template to deactivate everything in one go đŸ‘Œ https://github.com/yokoffing/BetterFox
(DIR) Post #B0W1vC5cwp5UPgOX7A by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-22T21:04:51Z
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@gilbert31@mastodon.online I'll check it out, thanks!
(DIR) Post #B0ZWdRYFgw8pIaYbqa by cks@mastodon.social
2025-11-24T04:49:08Z
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@abucci It's possible to use Firefox's 'enterprise' policy system to hard-set known preferences in a way that sticks. I've resorted to doing it for my setup, with increasingly gritted teeth. Some documentation is at https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/I learned about it from https://electric.marf.space/@trysdyn/statuses/01JN7H07704Z9ZJY197A9AM33K
(DIR) Post #B0ZWdSSGKgwc6IlL9M by mdione@en.osm.town
2025-11-24T12:54:51Z
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@cks @abucci anything online we can steal from^W^W riff of?
(DIR) Post #B0ZWdTJR8zTklDdo24 by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-24T13:33:01Z
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@mdione@en.osm.town @cks@mastodon.social That link has a post where the person shares their JSON policy file. That might be a good place to start?
(DIR) Post #B0ZWzp0DBLdaOxJ1UW by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-24T13:37:08Z
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@cks@mastodon.social This is great, thank you. A few people have suggested Betterfox and Arkenfox, which if I'm understanding correctly use a custom user.js to harden the browser. Arkenfox has a user-override.js file where you put the settings you want to stick between updates; I imagine Betterfox has something similar but I haven't looked that much into it yet. You could put these AI settings in there. I hesitate to publicly suggest such things till I've had a chance to check them out so I haven't. It's good to see there are options, though.
(DIR) Post #B0ZXPrIRH9ED2sFMyu by utopiah@mastodon.pirateparty.be
2025-11-24T08:42:53Z
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@abucci I didn't verify but I imagine they are hierarchical, e.g. disabled browser.ml.enable also disables everything under browser.ml.What annoys me though is :- why is it enabled by default?- (arguably even worst) why preferences (the normal ones, with buttons, that most people can use) show nothing related?Antifeatures indeed.
(DIR) Post #B0ZXPsX0gSTgsM4WKe by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-24T13:41:52Z
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@utopiah@mastodon.pirateparty.be That's the thing. It seems like that top-level option ought to disable everything, and that's what folks keep saying. However, there are new "aichat" and "aiwindow" and "smartAssist" configuration options that are also AI. Are those affected by this browser.ml.enable boolean? Maybe not--why else would they be in different namespaces? Looking forward, what stops Mozilla from adding new branches of this stuff (browser.llm.enable, browser.perplexity.ai.enable, ....) toggled on by default? Seemingly nothing stops them.Mozilla lost my trust with behavior like this, so now I will check regularly.
(DIR) Post #B0bYYG1FjGk2JChG9A by julienw@pouet.chapril.org
2025-11-25T08:23:26Z
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@abucci my understanding is that the global switch is enough to disable it, and we treat that as a bug if it doesn't. Also I've been told there will be a switch in the preferences eventually.
(DIR) Post #B0bYYHNyeGVsXyKvCq by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-25T13:03:54Z
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@julienw@pouet.chapril.org If you read the comments on my post you'll see several other people have said the same thing, and that I responded with skepticism (which I explained).
(DIR) Post #B0bpxAnfy7X0aBoSYq by julienw@pouet.chapril.org
2025-11-25T15:27:21Z
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@abucci you can be skeptical, but what I said is that if this doesn't work it's handled as a bug and you can file it and it will be fixed.
(DIR) Post #B0bpxBbeyHVv5DCNTE by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-25T16:19:01Z
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@julienw@pouet.chapril.org You didn't read the comments.
(DIR) Post #B0cehfGw0DFK7PrQKu by julienw@pouet.chapril.org
2025-11-25T23:41:03Z
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@abucci I did, in addition I work at mozilla and I personally know the folks working on AI functionalities.
(DIR) Post #B0cehgpiCOeuxZ8iBM by abucci@buc.ci
2025-11-26T01:47:32Z
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Does setting browser.ml.enable to false override browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled, browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled and browser.ml.smartAssist.enabled? Does it set them to false? If so this behavior is not obvious, and the naming of these options in this way is ripe for confusion and misinterpretation. If these settings are left alone, then they have be checked separately.Does setting browser.ml.enable to false also set extensions.ml.enabled to false or override? If so, why? That is unexpected and confusing behavior. If not, then these settings have to be checked and changed separately.Does setting browser.ml.enable to false also set browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled and browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled to false, or overide them? If so, why the heck? This is unexpected and confusing behavior. If not, then these have to be checked and changed separately.Does setting browser.ml.enable to false set browser.ml.chat.sidebar to false, or override it? If so, why? If not, this is another setting that has to be checked and changed separately.What about browser.ml.chat.shortcuts and browser.ml.chat.shortcuts.custom?Does setting browser.ml.enable to false also set browser.aiwindow.enabled to false, or override it? If so, what the hell? If not, this is another setting that has to be checked and changed separately.I don't have the numbers in front of me but Firefox used to have maybe 5 settings like this. Now it has 16. How many more are going to be added? 32 more? 100 more? Will they all be controlled, ultimately, by browser.ml.enable, regardless of how they're named? If not, how am I to know when I need to scour through these settings again to see if any new ones have popped up? This feels user hostile if you're a user who does not want AI cruft in your web browser.How many bug reports do you reckon I should file about the above?
(DIR) Post #B1771XGk5rzIY1pek4 by plwt@mstdn.social
2025-12-10T18:06:46Z
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@abucci Quite a few of those features can be turned off without needing to go into about:config. Much easier and much safer.
(DIR) Post #B1771Y4j61yD33DZeS by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-10T18:26:08Z
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@plwt@mstdn.social I'm not going to poke through a settings panel and hope. I want all these settings permanently off. I don't want the settings to be reverted after upgrade, which some reports suggest is happening. I don't want new configuration options that I'm opted into by default to pop up without my knowing.Right now watching about:config is the only viable way to satisfy those requirements."Much safer"? AI/LLMs are not safe. I'll make safety judgments for myself, thanks. "Much easier"? I'll be the judge of that, thanks.A strange reply, I have to say--it's unclear what your motivations are for posting this.
(DIR) Post #B17BKqlcDz4OL2jpGy by plwt@mstdn.social
2025-12-10T19:06:19Z
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@abucci Saving you and others from having to poke around in about:config and risking data loss and damaging your own Fx setup was the aim.The settings screen is much easier to navigate and safer to use for most people and with good reason it does not have the same warning screen as about:config.
(DIR) Post #B17BKs45OnRGMcO5hY by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-10T19:14:33Z
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@plwt@mstdn.social And you believe I don't know this because.........?Saving youCheck that savior complex talk please.
(DIR) Post #B1NKB5HlOkHUaUYHtQ by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-18T13:52:48Z
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I've now had at least four people, two of whom self-identified as Mozilla employees, claim that the above list of AI features--which were suddenly and rapidly added over the last few releases of Firefox, and were "on" (true) by default--could easily be turned off by flipping one master kill switch. This is not true, but folks keep claiming it or suggesting it anyway.Here's a post from an official Firefox Mastodon account suggesting such a master kill switch does not exist yet, but will be added in a future release:https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500373677782That's not as bad as it could be. It's bad they're stuffing AI into a perfectly good web browser for no apparent reason other than vibes or desperation. It's very bad if it's on by default; their dissembling post about it aside, opt-in has a reasonably clear meaning here: if there's a kill switch, then that kill switch should be off by default. But at least there will be a kill switch.In any case, please stop responding to my post saying there's a master kill switch for Firefox's AI slop features. From the horse's mouth, and from user experience, there is not yet.Furthermore, when there is a master kill switch, we don't know whether flipping it will maintain previous state of all the features it controls. In other words it's possible they'll have the master kill switch turn on all AI features when the switch is flipped to "on" or "true", rather than leaving them in whatever state you'd set them to previously. Perhaps you decide to turn the kill switch on because there are a handful of features you're comfortable with and you want to try them; will doing so mean that now all the AI features are on? We won't know till it's released and people try this. So, in the meantime, it's still good practice to keep an eye on all these configuration options if you want the AI off.#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #web #tech #dev #Firefox #Mozilla #AISlop #NoAI #NoLLMs #NoAIBrowsers