Mozilla said Firefox 148 will include controls that let users block all current and future generative AI features in the desktop browser, TechCrunch reported on February 2nd. The new settings will also allow individual controls for features such as translation, PDF alt text, AI-enhanced tab grouping, link previews, and the browser's chatbot sidebar. Mozilla framed the change as a response to users who want useful AI tools and users who want no AI in the browser at all.

The refusal switch gives the browser a rare gesture of restraint. Most software now treats AI as a permanent weather system, arriving inside search boxes, sidebars, menus, summaries, image tools, and pop-ups that ask the user to adapt. Firefox is making the opposite promise: a person may say no at the level of the environment, not feature by feature after each intrusion appears. That matters because the browser is where work, reading, shopping, banking, news, school, and private wandering meet. Consent inside that space cannot be reduced to novelty. A switch in settings is a modest object, but it restores one political verb to the interface. The user can refuse before the assistant begins speaking.