Mastodawn

ιέρεια Εδέμ Mar 14

As there seems to have been recent confusion about this, just a quick "official" toot to then pin: we haven't and won't support "generative AI" related stuff in LibreWolf. If you see some features like that (like Perplexity search recently, or the link preview feature now) it is solely because it "slipped through". As soon as we become aware of something like this / it gets reported to us, we will remove/disable it ASAP.

Draken BlackKnight Dec 14

@librewolf
Nothing that can't be disabled in about:config. Namely anything beginning with browser.ml and extensions.ml

@librewolf framing this surrounded by flowers and love hearts THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

konstruct-960T-BF64.gguf Dec 14

@librewolf based based based based based

[384992] Ellie H. Winters

verifieddemigirl

@librewolf based as fuck

Tuchowski Dec 14

@librewolf 👍🏾

crypty:-) 😺Dec 14

@librewolf 👍👍👍

official_verified

@librewolf Phew! Thank you!! 🙏

💙

Is there full human readable list of FireFox AI feature @librewolf disable? Or list of all disabled features

:EA DATA. SF:Dec 14

@mrclon @librewolf

Edit 3: or just use this as your user.js
https://github.com/Tiagoquix/firefox-annoyances

This is from October https://flamedfury.com/posts/disable-ai-in-firefox/

Below is a list of the “AI” features you can disable in about:config, along with a short explanation of what I understand each one does. Enjoy.

browser.ml.enable - Master switch for Firefox’s built-in machine-learning platform. Turning this off disables all AI features.
browser.ml.chat.enabled - Enables the AI chatbot integration.
browser.ml.chat.sidebar - Shows the AI chat panel in the sidebar.
browser.ml.chat.shortcuts - Lets you trigger chat from selected text or shortcuts.
browser.ml.chat.page - Powers the on-page chat menu when you highlight text.
browser.ml.chat.page.footerBadge - Displays the floating badge at the bottom of the page.
browser.ml.chat.page.menuBadge - Shows the “Ask AI” badge in the page menu.
browser.ml.chat.menu - Adds “Chat about this” to right-click menus.
browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled - Generates AI-based link previews and suggestions.
extensions.ml.enabled - Allows browser extensions to use Firefox’s ML API.
browser.ml.pageAssist.enabled - Runs the AI “page assist” summariser/assistant.
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled - Uses AI to automatically group and label your tabs.
browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnable - Lets users manually toggle the smart tab groups feature.

Edit: I see Mastodon doesn't do markdown tables. Give me a bit to fix it.

Edit 2: it's no longer a markdown table.

But it's missing these:

pdfjs.enableAltTextModelDownload
pdfjs.enableGuessAltText

GitHub - Tiagoquix/firefox-annoyances: Quick user.js customization to disable annoyances introduced by Mozilla in Firefox

Quick user.js customization to disable annoyances introduced by Mozilla in Firefox - Tiagoquix/firefox-annoyances

GitHub

Arthfach 🐻Dec 14

@librewolf Glad to see it. Thank you for sticking true to blocking the AI garbage Mozilla is loading into Firefox.

Nafeon the Bear Dec 14

@librewolf sometimes AI feature come so fast you can't think of all of them in time. Understandable.

haui ☭ 🇵🇸Dec 14

@librewolf
I'm testing librewolf now and it is wonderful.

Sidenote: It needs an import button for firefox extensions or something since is cruel to add 10 extensions by hand.

Thank you for doing this. For a better tomorrow.

Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸Dec 14

@librewolf Gracias 👍👍

@librewolf how is the link preview feature GenAI related?

As far as I can imagine, this just requests the page and looks at the meta tags to show an embed-style widget. (Like what services like Mastodon, Discord, and co. also do.)

Obsurveyor Dec 14

@SteffoSpieler @librewolf It does not do any of that.

@obsurveyor oh that's interesting... I don't have the "key points" thingy, and I'm using Firefox.

Though it still makes an embed-style widget (see the top half), so it doesn't "not do any of that".

As long as @librewolf not removes the full preview feature (which can be disabled in the settings anyway), then I'm okay with that. Having a fork go "This is a new feature; I don't want this; bye" is bad in my opinion. Disabling just the GenAI part is okay.

@SteffoSpieler
@obsurveyor
I'd understand why LibreWold would want it off by default in full. Websites can now see if someone is hovering over their URL, because to get that preview, an HTTP-request must be made

@h3 even though it's not via hovering (but actually a click in the context menu or clicking the link for one second), I do agree with you that this can be defaulted off, with the option to at least be able to enable it again.

2something Dec 14

@SteffoSpieler @librewolf

In some circumstance the link preview will ask you if you want to enable AI summaries.

Webber-e-bop Dec 14

@librewolf huh, is the "link preview" AI?

I thought it just loaded the page and then took a screenshot.

Baharul Islam Dec 14

@librewolf Librewolf for Android?

prince lucija Dec 14

@mortal_engine @librewolf iceraven with uBlock Origin

https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser

GitHub - fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser: Iceraven Browser

Iceraven Browser. Contribute to fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Baharul Islam Dec 14

@prinlu
This is what I've been using.

@librewolf Yeah I was wondering why I got a random popup while reading a wikipedia article, where it said I could use "LibreWolf's AI" to sum up the article and save time reading it.
Did this also slip through?

@zanon @librewolf 100% as the librewolf team has neither the time nor the money to develop an ai

@zanon @librewolf what the unholy fuck

I’ve said this before and i’ll say this again

Firefox is fashware

It’s way past the point of merely bordering on that

Grow Fediverse Dec 14

@librewolf so grateful for this

Li ~ Crystal System Dec 14

@librewolf the fact AI is forced into shit so hard that you can just _miss_ it being added in your fork meant to remove it is just so unbelievably silly

@[email protected] This is great to hear.

I have a question pertaining to AI and Librewolf. Recently I started collecting the AI-related configuration options that appear when viewing about:config in Firefox: https://buc.ci/abucci/p/1764685990.503590 . There is one related to Perplexity I've found in the meantime that isn't on that list (browser.urlbar.perplexity.hasBeenInSearchMode). Do these configuration options reflect code and features you are able to remove from the codebase completely? Or must it stay in there, but turned off? I get that you might not have plans to do this, or even be able to, but I figured I'd ask.

I ask because my recent experience with Firefox is that they are rapidly adding new AI-related features and corresponding configuration options like these. Many (most) are on by default when they're added, there does not seem to be an obvious place to find some of them in the Settings, and there does not seem to be a "master switch" to turn them all off. It'd be really nice not to have to be hypervigilant about this stuff, just as it's nice not to have to be hypervigilant about ads and tracking or telemetry.

Thanks for your work!

Anthony (@[email protected])

@[email protected] FYI, I made a similar post with a similar list on Nov 22, two days after the post you screencapped: https://buc.ci/abucci/p/1763845084.289082 . I received a lot of pushback from people, including a person who claimed to work for Mozilla, the most common being "setting `browser.ml.enable` to `false` turns all these off so what's the problem?". This is false, though, besides being dismissive. It's also confusing (obfuscating?) since many of the settings are not in the `browser.ml`

buc.ci

Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary Dec 17

@abucci @librewolf
I would also be interested in you removing as much "AI"-related code as possible, rather than your just assuming you can just turn it off and everything will be OK. Code you don't want run yet still technically include seems like a security hole waiting for the right exploit to force back into a functional state.

@librewolf does on device translation count as genai?

:EA DATA. SF:Dec 14

@librewolf thank goodness. I am glad to have an official response because moving to something like Vivaldi at this point just seems like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

nachtpfoetchen2️⃣Dec 14

@librewolf maybe it slipped through, but mozilla uses local llms for the translation feature in firefox and is activated per default on librewolf at debian.
I think at least disabling the feature by default in the settings would be neat. to conserve the battery life on my device i want to avoid to run an llm on my old laptop to translate a webpage. I think also most people are unaware of how exactly the feature works.

more info on this: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/firefox-117-introduces-local-translations.tuxedo

Firefox 117 introduces local translations - TUXEDO Computers

Firefox 117 introduces local translations: The internet has become much more accessible in recent years, mainly due to one development. Translation frameworks such as Google Translate, Microsoft’s Bing Translator or DeepL allow many people a deeper ...

@nachtpfoetchen @librewolf I think the scale, focus and, well, location of the local translation model is significantly different from today's "generative" "AI" that it makes a difference.

Kaizo Hellhound

@nachtpfoetchen @librewolf afaik the translation model only actually loads and runs when you hit the translate button. unless i'm mistaken, i don't see much point in further "disabling" the feature by default as it already only gets invoked when the user requests it.

plus, having the browser automatically offer translation reduces the friction people experience when visiting sites in other languages. i feel like that's important for the sake of global communication and access to information from other countries/cultures/etc

LibreWolf Dec 21

@nachtpfoetchen it's not using LLMs/GenAI (uses Machine Learning, too, yes, but ML/AI is a much, much broader field then what's currently pushed as "AI" - though that's not something we could swiftly summarize in a toot real quick, so let's not go into details here right now :), which makes it (and especially considering its potential actual usefulness) a wholly different beast, so to speak - which is why we intentionally kept the functionality.

nachtpfoetchen2️⃣Dec 21

@librewolf thank you for taking time and for this reply, very appreciated:)

krys/midi theriansymbol Dec 14

@librewolf
Thanks for the sick browser btw

@librewolf bofh has a good side in keeping things clean and human based, much appreciated

arosano 🇩🇰 🇮🇱Dec 15

@librewolf Many of us are waiting/hoping for a #netbsd and an #openbsd version of #librewolf.

DFX4509B (Joshua Mason)Dec 17

@arosano @librewolf It shouldn't be too difficult on the face of it to just locally compile a binary for one of those OSes yourself, and maintain your own local repo, assuming BSD has tools for maintaining local user repos.

It would require downloading the source code every release and keeping it somewhere to compile though if you're maintaining your own user repo.

Jim Spath Dec 17

@arosano @librewolf There is a pkgsrc version, in work-in-progress, though I've not tried it out yet.
https://pkgsrc.se/wip/librewolf

pkgsrc.se | The NetBSD package collection

@librewolf First: Thanks for all your hard work over the years.

While it’s great to have this social post clarification, it would help a lot going forward too if this ’No AI’ stance was posted somewhere on the website like ‘No Telemetry’ is under Main Features so it is more discoverable. Both Waterfox and Vivaldi have their No AI stances posted on their website blogs:
https://www.waterfox.com/blog/no-ai-here-response-to-mozilla/
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/vivaldi-wont-allow-a-machine-to-lie-to-you/

No AI* Here - A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter - Waterfox Blog

Mozilla's pivot to AI first browsing raises fundamental questions about what a browser should be.

Waterfox

LibreWolf Dec 17

@sylvie good point. The website / documentation is currently somewhat outdated in a bunch of places, unfortunately, and needs a bit of work. Once that happens though, we'll certainly add it! :)

Andy 🌎Dec 17

@librewolf "we haven't and won't support "generative AI" related stuff in LibreWolf"

This commitment should be prominent on the front page of your website! I went looking for this and didn't find it, but eventually found this post on Mastodon.

You have a great opportunity right now to win over people who don't want pseudo-"AI" in their browser! (like me)

Internet Rando Dec 17

@librewolf Yeah, I think it might be time for yet another internet rando to make the leap to LibreWolf.. >_>

@librewolf
thank god. Thank you for clearing this up o7

Rad Joshua Dec 18

@librewolf thank you!

@librewolf It would be nice to see these features become optional instead of removed entirely, or maybe integration with LM Studio added so you can bring your own models.

I hate AI slop flooding the internet, but there are genuine uses for LLMs like asking questions about what you are reading, and research because they can read 20 articles and forum threads to find information you need in 5 seconds when it would take you 20 minutes.

David Gerard Dec 21

@fred6279 @librewolf but consider: No.

Al Audet Dec 20

@librewolf love librewolf . Keep up the great work

MiraculixMCMLXV Jan 1

Happy new year 2026!

This said: Things like in the image will be removed (not only in "about:config", but in LW's code?

MiraculixMCMLXV Jan 1

@librewolf And how long do you estimate to need for removing all at least current AI stuff? There already seem to be quite a lot included, what I found some minutes ago in about:config. The keys preceded by "browser.ml." contain - as mentioned - a lot of surely for _ m a n y _ users unwanted stuff.
Thanks for a possible reply

flag_genderfluid

@librewolf hi, and thanks for the message.

Just for me to be sure, that's something that comes from Firefox, and you missed it when updating the fork, is that right ?

LibreWolf Feb 19

@orange_lux yes.

flag_genderfluid

@librewolf thanks again. I love you guys.