An anonymous reader shared this report from 9to5Linux: After the controversial news shared earlier this week by Mozilla's new CEO that Firefox will evolve into "a modern AI browser," the company now revealed it is working on an AI kill switch for the open-source web browser... What was not made clear [in Tuesday's comments by new Mozilla CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo] is that Firefox will also ship with an AI kill switch that will let users completely disable all the AI features that are included in Firefox. Mozilla shared this important update earlier Thursday to make it clear to everyone that Firefox will still be a trusted web browser.... "...that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this," said Firefox developer Jake Archibald on Mastodon. In addition, Jake Archibald said that all the AI features that are or will be included in Firefox will also be opt-in. "I think there are some grey areas in what 'opt-in' means to different people (e.g. is a new toolbar button opt-in?), but the kill switch will absolutely remove all that stuff, and never show it in future. That's unambiguous..." Mozilla has contacted me shortly after writing the story to confirm that the "AI Kill Switch" will be implemented in Q1 2026." The article also cites this quote left by Mozilla's new CEO on Reddit: "Rest assured, Firefox will always remain a browser built around user control. That includes AI. You will have a clear way to turn AI features off. A real kill switch is coming in Q1 of 2026. Choice matters and demonstrating our commitment to choice is how we build and maintain trust."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

L’écosystème des navigateurs web est en pleine mutation. La raison ? L’avènement de navigateurs IA et, plus généralement, l’intégration de solutions LLM dans de nombreux navigateurs historiques.​ Le dernier en date à avoir amorcé cette transition est Firefox. Ce virage stratégique n’a pas manqué de provoquer la colère de nombreux utilisateurs, mais il a aussi donné des idées à Waterfox, un de ses dérivés populaires.​

Mozilla a un nouveau PDG et une nouvelle ambition. Anthony Enzor-DeMeo veut transformer le célèbre navigateur libre en un « écosystème » propulsé par l'intelligence artificielle. Une orientation stratégique qui, à peine annoncée, provoque une levée de boucliers chez les fidèles.

Purin vraiment y'a des baffes qui se perdent. Le nouveau patron de Mozilla veut faire de Firefox un navigateur à fond IA. 🤬

EDIT: Article en français : https://www.lesnumeriques.com/appli-logiciel/un-navigateur-ia-moderne-malgre-les-reactions-hostiles-firefox-officialise-son-passage-a-l-ia-n248266.html

À noter qu'ils ont annoncé un "kill switch" pour couper totalement les fonctionnalités d'IA dans Firefox. Donc c'est pas si mal.
https://next.ink/brief_article/firefox-aura-un-kill-switch-pour-ses-fonctions-ia/
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Choosing your browser "is one of the most important digital decisions you can make, shaping how you experience the web, protect your data, and express yourself online," says the Firefox blog. They've urged readers to "take a stand for independence and control in your digital life." But they also recently polled 8,000 adults in France, Germany, the UK and the U.S. on "how they navigate choice and control both online and offline" (attending in-person events in Chicago, Berlin, LA, and Munich, San Diego, Stuttgart): The survey, conducted by research agency YouGov, showcases a tension between people's desire to have control over their data and digital privacy, and the reality of the internet today — a reality defined by Big Tech platforms that make it difficult for people to exercise meaningful choice online: — Only 16% feel in control of their privacy choices (highest in Germany at 21%) — 24% feel it's "too late" because Big Tech already has too much control or knows too much about them. And 36% said the feeling of Big Tech companies knowing too much about them is frustrating — highest among respondents in the U.S. (43%) and the UK (40%) — Practices respondents said frustrated them were Big Tech using their data to train AI without their permission (38%) and tracking their data without asking (47%; highest in U.S. — 55% and lowest in France — 39%) And from our existing research on browser choice, we know more about how defaults that are hard to change and confusing settings can bury alternatives, limiting people's ability to choose for themselves — the real problem that fuels these dynamics. Taken together our new and existing insights could also explain why, when asked which actions feel like the strongest expressions of their independence online, choosing not to share their data (44%) was among the top three responses in each country (46% in the UK; 45% in the U.S.; 44% in France; 39% in Germany)... We also see a powerful signal in how people think about choosing the communities and platforms they join — for 29% of respondents, this was one of their top three expressions of independence online. "For Firefox, community has always been at the heart of what we do," says their VP of Global Marketing, "and we'll keep fighting to put real choice and control back in people's hands so the web once again feels like it belongs to the communities that shape it." At TwitchCon in San Diego Firefox even launched a satirical new online card game with a privacy theme called Data War.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Firefox 146 has been released with native fractional scaling support on Wayland -- finally giving Linux users crisp UI rendering. Other new additions include GPU process improvements on macOS, developer-focused CSS features, and broader access to Firefox Labs. Phoronix reports: Firefox 146 also now makes Firefox Labs available to all users, Firefox on macOS now has a dedicated GPU process by default, dropping Direct2D support on Windows, support for compressed elliptic curve points in WebCrypto, and updated the bundled Skia graphics library. Firefox 146 also has some fun developer enhancements like support for the CSS text-decoration-inset property, the @scope rule now being supported, CSS contrast-color() function being available, and several new experimental web features. The release notes and developer changes can be found at their respective links. Release binaries are available at Mozilla.org.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Je me renote ici la tétrachiée de réglage à bidouille pour couper l'IA dans Firefox (ouais quand ce genre de chose suit l'installation d'un logiciel, c'est généralement très mauvais signe):

about:config
user_pref("browser.ml.enable", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.sidebar", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.menu", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.page", false);
user_pref("extensions.ml.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled", false);
user_pref("pdfjs.enableAltTextModelDownload", false);
user_pref("pdfjs.enableGuessAltText", false);
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21 ans.
21 fucking années pour que Firefox se conforme au XDG pour l'emplacement où il met ses fichiers.

Ah et si les développeurs de jeux voulaient bien AUSSI s'y conformer, ça nous ferait des vacances, hein (quel immonde bordel).
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Fucking NON.
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