Aug 18, 2026, 2:27 AMRE: https://mastodon.mit.edu/@amsomniac/117113957359596534
An off switch for "AI" is not enough. *An off switch for "AI" is never enough.* The "AI" has to be actually physically removed from the binary. Any software project who believes "Artificial Intelligence" is a real thing does not have the institutional competence to implement an off switch
Aug 18, 2026, 2:37 AMAny software project which claims that an opt-out protocol is sufficient is inherently untrustworthy.
The only solution is not only to remove 'AI' from the software at every level, but also to remove the proponents of the world-eaters from the project in entirety.
Aug 18, 2026, 9:25 AM
@tofu @theogrin @mcc folks already are. On desktops Waterfox and Librewolf for those wanting to stick with the gecko rendering engine. Only Waterfox is available on Android though.
Both of these forks have existed well before Mozilla decided AI was a better feature to add than bug fixes. Waterfox has been around for ages; it started life as a 64 bit compiled version of Firefox when Mozilla was still only doing 32 bit. It's had its ups and downs, but they have made a strong #NoAI statement and are on solid ethical ground now.
If you want AI free Chromium browsers, try Ungoogled Chromium, Helium, and Vivaldi. Only Vivaldi is also on Android, and they're pretty open about their contempt for AI (if not so open about their source code).
Aug 18, 2026, 3:01 PM
Aug 18, 2026, 4:34 AM@mcc Counting the updates until "due to little to no use, the AI killswitch is being removed." Because if every update breaks it, people will leave it on, right?
They are not serious about catering to people who do not want AI in Firefox. This has always been a placation.
Aug 18, 2026, 3:53 PM@mcc
I think both @librewolf and @Waterfox remove that stuff. With Librewolf I am sure Waterfox I do not use daily so can't guarantee.
Still very sad. Especially since some stuff can also go unnoticed in those forks. I think Librewolf had a bug at some point where one of the AI menus was still present just not working, not sure though.
Aug 18, 2026, 5:59 PM@Wolkensteine @librewolf @Waterfox Yeah, I'm going to have to upgrade to one of these as the ESR with the AI missing times out
@Wolkensteine @mcc @Waterfox This was only a UI component, which was none functional, since the required models were never allowed to be fetched.
Aug 19, 2026, 10:29 AM@mcc That's why I like my hardware disabling switches on my PinePhone.
Software can turn all sorts of things on or off after an update.
But it cannot flip a physical kill switch (yet).