https://itsfoss.com/news/mozilla-ai-window-plans/
Planned browsing mode will let users chat with an AI assistant while surfing the web.
Firefox has been pushing AI features for a while now. Over the past year, they've added AI chatbots in the sidebar, automatic alt text generation, and AI-enhanced tab grouping. It is basically their way of keeping up with Chrome and Edge, both of which have gone all-in on AI.
Of course not everyone is thrilled about AI creeping into their web browsers, and Mozilla (the ones behind Firefox) seems to understand that. Every AI feature in Firefox is opt-in. You can keep using the browser as you always have, or flip on AI tools when you actually need them.
Now, they are taking this approach a step further with something called AI Window.
Mozilla has announced it's working on AI Window, a new browsing mode that comes with a built-in AI assistant. Think of it as a third option alongside the Classic browsing mode and Private Window mode.
Before you get angry, know that it will be fully optional. Switch to AI Window when you want help, or just ignore it entirely. Try it, hate it, disable it. Mozilla's whole pitch is that you stay in control.
On the transparency front, they are making three commitments:
A fully opt-in experience.
Features that protect your choice.
More transparency around how your data is used.Why bother with all this, you ask? Mozilla sees AI as part of the web's future and wants to shape it their way. They figure ignoring AI while it reshapes the web doesn't help anyone, so they want to steer it toward user control rather than watch browsers from AI companies (read: Big Tech) lock people in.
Ajit Varma, the Vice President and Head of Product at Firefox, put it like this:
"We believe standing still while technology moves forward doesn't benefit the web or humanity. That's why we see it as our responsibility to shape how AI integrates into the web — in ways that protect and give people more choice, not less."
The feature isn't live. Mozilla's building it "in the open" and wants feedback to shape how it turns out. If you want early access, there's a waitlist at firefox.com/ai to get updates and first dibs on testing.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 19, @05:45AM (7 children)
since when do they have enough spare cash to 'invest in AI'?
(Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday November 19, @05:55AM (4 children)
A huge percentage of their development budget for like the past 5 years has gone to AI teams.
No, I don't want it either. For a product who's single biggest selling point is now "Not google" there's a fuck ton of desire to be google.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday November 19, @10:59AM
It's circular. Isn't Google also the one that more or less funds Mozilla? To keep up the illusion that there is competition in the market. Now they are returning the favor of the money with a tab, nobody asked for, to give something back ...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday November 20, @02:12AM
I've seen it referred to as Chromefox for just that reason.
(Score: 2) by corey on Thursday November 20, @08:52PM
I agree with your sentiment and don’t want AI, but I at least appreciate the way they are going about it. It’s really how all the big corps should be unrolling AI, just as another tool. Rather than shoved everywhere and nagged to use it. That’s what MS Office does to me lately.
> Mozilla sees AI as part of the web's future and wants to shape it their way. They figure ignoring AI while it reshapes the web doesn't help anyone
I disagree. Ignoring AI is perfectly fine. It might reshape the web, but for the worse. Ignoring AI at least keeps us level headed about this and maybe us ignorers can start a new one or help fix it.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday November 20, @10:23PM
That's been the case for well over a decade at this point where they kept making things more and more Chrome-like even with things like the version system where it caused problems. A lot of the marketshare issue is that if they're going to make the browser more and more chrome-like, then what's the point of using Fx?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday November 19, @02:53PM (1 child)
https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/05/googles-search-antitrust-trial-is-wrapping-up-heres-what-we-learned/ [arstechnica.com]
To be fair, I believe the billions is to Apple and Mozilla gets millions (It's actually hundreds of millions, which is more than I thought).
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday November 20, @02:14AM
What it would most likely do is cut out all the Google slushfund fuelled wank that no-one asked for and no-one wants and force them to get back to what Firefox was originally created to be. It wouldn't doom the browser, it'd resuscitate it.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 19, @12:05PM (3 children)
AI chatbots are:
And that's what America stands for right now: Being confidently and expensively wrong is considered more valuable than being right. About anything.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 19, @06:56PM (1 child)
completely and confidently wrong.
I've noticed that even if you get one of the damnable things to accept that it's response to your query was wrong, if you ask the same question of it again a week or so later it'll still parrot out the original wrong answer.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday November 21, @12:57AM
I don't think they train from user feedback, nor should they, lest some prankster game it.
Remember Microsoft Tay? Microsoft put that chatbot out there and it learned from the users. A few users got a bunch of bad ideas into Tay for shits and giggles.
Microsoft had to take Tay offline.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Thursday November 20, @08:54PM
+6 on that. Well done, that’s insightful.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday November 19, @12:35PM (2 children)
I'd like a tab extension that puts a percentage in the tab title of the odds of the page being AI generated. Then, I could close or lower the priority of AI-generated slop. Maybe mark the cursor with cached values so when I hover over a hyperlink it reports if it points to trash or not. Maybe even a pop up when I click if the odds are bad "Are you sure? This link has a 95% prediction of being AI slop"
They could use AI for that, it should recognize itself pretty well.
I wonder who is paying for the API as I'm sure the service they are wrapping is not free/cheap.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday November 19, @03:02PM
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/openai-admits-that-ai-writing-detectors-dont-work/ [arstechnica.com]
Given, that article is 2 years old, which is a long time in AI terms. However, I've not heard anything that would convince me that it's not just as bad at detecting AI as it is in doing anything else. Essentially every company behind every AI/LLM is actively trying to make their AI/LLM better. While that might not necessitate it being hard to detect. You would have to build-in ways to detect it and I don't think anyone has a good enough grasp on any of the LLMs to do that.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by tekk on Wednesday November 19, @04:48PM
Mozilla actually used to have a project to detect AI bullshit.
Of course, they killed it.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday November 19, @01:32PM (1 child)
Marketing slop.
Just these three placid lines without any real meaning contained in them put me in absolute distrust mode immediately.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 19, @05:25PM
Maybe not quite that bad if they do as reported in tfa?
I still use Google search, seems to get me to the site I want better than other choices. In Firefox I can highlite any words, right click and go directly to Google Search. When Gemini results started to appear above the traditional search results, this was mostly annoying, so I installed Firefox Extension "No More Gemini" that removes the Gemini results (they flash up, then go away).
About once a week, I'm interested in a Gemini result--to get that now I open a Private Window (selected in the main File menu), it seems that the extension doesn't work there. Side note--sometimes opening a page in a Private Window will bypass an annoying popup &/or paywall message.
What is described in tfa seems like a third option. If the AI is crap, then just don't use it. If it's delivered as noted, the only downsides could be the resources diverted from main FF development...and a somewhat larger file size for Firefox on disk and in memory.
(Score: 2) by jman on Thursday November 20, @01:54PM (2 children)
In evolutionary terms, it's not going to die as too many lazy people will feed it, and alas, trust the output, propogating the slop.
Having seen Watson on Jeopardy give the exact same wrong answer that - IIRC - Ken Jennnings had just offered - it is clear that even years later, the technology is not ready for prime time.
That being said, I use have used MZ's products for years, and it is sad to see the company fallen so far from the once lofty heights it maintained. Am not sure how this can go well, but if one can turn it off, sure, why not experiment and see what happens.
My human collection of facts may be slow and analog, but as a species we've been learning to learn for millions of years now. These speedy tin creations of ours have a lot of catching up to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20, @07:51PM (1 child)
I don't think people's laziness has anything to do with sustaining this insanity. It will die as soon as there is no more money to shovel into the money burning pit. AI companies are burning literally hundreds of billions of dollars in expenditures in order to make millions of dollars in revenue. Some of the things AI systems can do may be interesting but it's hard to imagine anyone actually paying enough for it to justify any of this expenditure.
The only company actually making any money from all of this is NVIDIA and their suppliers, who literally can't make GPUs fast enough for all the people lining up to dump money on them. But NVIDIA will be massively fucked too once those people stop coming.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Friday November 21, @01:08AM
That's how you'd get rich during a gold mining boom... Sell shovels and food to the miners.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]