The big picture: Firefox and its forks remain the preferred browsers for a niche segment of power users, many of whom strongly opposed Mozilla's plans to infuse the browser with generative AI features. To its credit, Mozilla listened to community feedback and agreed to introduce a graphical interface option allowing users to disable all AI features globally. The so-called "AI kill switch" is now available in Firefox 148.
The "Block AI Enhancements" toggle was originally introduced in Firefox 148 Nightly in January following significant community backlash after Mozilla's new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, announced plans to add AI features to Firefox. With Firefox 148 now rolling out to the stable channel, the feature is available to users across all release channels.
In Firefox 148, all AI features are disabled by default, though users can enable them at any time with a few clicks. To change the setting in the desktop version of Firefox, click the hamburger menu (three parallel lines) in the top-right corner of the window and select Settings. Then choose AI Controls from the left sidebar and toggle on "Block AI Enhancements."
Users can also enable specific AI features individually while keeping others disabled. To do so, update the settings for each AI feature using the dropdown menus while the global kill switch remains enabled. Note that future AI features will also be disabled by default if the AI-blocking toggle is turned on.
If you choose to enable the AI chatbot feature, Firefox offers a choice of five providers, including Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Le Chat Mistral, and Microsoft Copilot. Other features that can be enabled individually include AI translation, Alt text generation for PDF images, AI-enhanced tab groups, and "Key Points" summaries in link previews.
In addition to the AI kill switch, Firefox 148 also introduces other improvements, such as enhanced screen reader support for mathematical formulas embedded in PDFs, Remote Improvements without telemetry requirements, and added support for Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese in the translation system. The release also includes several security patches and bug fixes.