I know that many here do not like Firefox, but it looks like they installed a kill switch for AI. This maybe of interest for some.
Will be interesting how they handle it. I've read it should be disabled by default. Hopefully that is true. And there seem to be several Options for setting up that whole Thing.
Okay, I got the Update and ... the Toggle is there but how they handle it ... I find that weird. Why? You enable the Toggle to disable the AI Stuff.
I would think it should be handled that when You disable the Toggle, the AI Stuff is disabled. And when You enable the Toggle, the AI Stuff is enabled.
Oh, and an Information: I saw that there is a new Telemetry Option that is enabled by default.
www.vivaldi.com doesn't have any AI at all. It is a deliberate choise from the developers.
Thanks, @Ponce-De-Leon, for the head's up!
They can't help but shoot themselves in the foot! Why?
It drives me up the wall! I mostly use Brave these days but sometimes I revert to Firefox, so I'd better check my settings as I did notice an update recently.
The question becomes, is it an actual kill switch or a placebo while the AI continues to mine your data? That's all AI is being used for.
These companies and industries do nothing for the consumer. It's all for their own benefit.
Welcome to the Forum!
At least there is an Info Text that says that the AI Stuff is blocked. But You can set up under it some Exceptions if You want.
They write:
At launch, AI controls let you manage these features individually:
- Translations, which help you browse the web in your preferred language.
- Alt text in PDFs, which add accessibility descriptions to images in PDF pages.
- AI-enhanced tab grouping, which suggests related tabs and group names.
- Link previews, which show key points before you open a link.
- AI chatbot in the sidebar, which lets you use your chosen chatbot as you browse, including options like Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Le Chat Mistral.
You can choose to use some of these and not others. If you don’t want to use AI features from Firefox at all, you can turn on the Block AI enhancements toggle. When it’s toggled on, you won’t see pop-ups or reminders to use existing or upcoming AI features.
AI controls are coming to Firefox
Nevertheless, I guess, when you perform a search in Google, you will still see the AI generated answer at the top.
I use zen a fork of Firefox. I noticed they appear to have dropped Perplexity A.I. but it can be installed should you want to. I only use Vivaldi for occasional login to Finacial stuff but delete all data on exit. I notice DuckDuckGo offers two different search engines, one with A.I. and one without. However I am never going back to DucDuckGo because of its censorship of searches. Mojeek is my permanent search engine. I delete all others apart from Wikipedia.
Even easier to avoid if they stop shoving a grossly underdeveloped tool down our throats so they can more effectively mine our data and build better marketing profiles.