this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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This is how to disable the new “AI” chatbot in #Firefox:

  • type about:config into the awesome bar
  • skip the warning for first time modders
  • locate the browser.ml.chat.enabled setting and set it to false

In the #Librewolf fork, a thoughtful person has already done this for you.

(HT to @[email protected] for the hint!)

#genAI #chatbot #bullshitgenerator #llm #dontCallItAI

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Is that Murica-only/Not-EU? Because I haven't seen any mention of AI/ML/LLM in nightly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's already disabled by default though. And if you use the sidebar/vertical tabs and even want to remove the menu option there, click "Customize sidebar", then uncheck "AI chatbot". No need for messing with about:config and ignoring warnings.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@[email protected] Disabled in the sidebar or in about:config?

According to our tests, vanilla Firefox has browser.ml.chat.enabled = true by default.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Disabled as in there is no AI chatbot you can chat with by default until you set it up. If you enable the sidebar/vertical tabs, there is an "AI chatbot" button, but if you click that, you'll still have to set it up yourself, if I remember correctly. And you can remove that button the way I described.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Murica, as in a Redneck-accent version of "America", as that is usually the breeding spot of bullshit - a first world country economically (let's see for how long), but a third world country in terms of human rights, especially digitally

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@30p87
It's only a sidebar that can show a LLM chat tab (basically just a framed website) of different LLM providers including fully local ones.

@switchingsoftware

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I just discovered that there is something like a sidebar, lol. But yeah, considering you can disable the tab without any hassle, I wouldn't consider it a real problem. As long as they don't try to integrate it further.

[–] ProtonBadger 8 points 2 weeks ago

Oh, I didn't even realize it was there. It's just a button in the sidebar. One can right click on the sidebar, click customize to toggle it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected] Thanks!

... Picture my delight in realising LibreWolf already did that for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm on v136 of firefox and don't see any sign of an AI chat. I have not changed any settings

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected]
What about the Android version? I don't think the method works for that

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

On desktop Firefox, it's not enabled by default. On Firefox for Android, it's not even there, i.e. you can't even enable it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah when they add it to mobile firefox were fucked, rated one star and they vommented saying they have no plans to add about:config to mobile firefox, telling me to use the beta shit version instead.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@switchingsoftware @kuketzblog
But about:config does work on the Iceraven fork. So if they implement it on android there'll be a fix.
You install it from here https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/releases. Look for the readme file. Straightforward but you have to check for updates every so often. It also has a wider range of plugins, my initial reason for switching.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

@markhburton

We recommend #IronFox as a cleaned up Firefox fork for Android. It supports about:config, too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected] Hi - Where can I find ironwolf - it's not showing up in ddg search?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

@[email protected] @[email protected] Thanks - Glad one of us is paying attention 😄

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected]
It claims to be installable from F-Droid (isn't there) and Accrescent (install doesn't work).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

@markhburton @stephenhomewood

IronFox' readme does a poor job explaining how to install this app via F-Droid. IronFox is not yet part of F-Droid's own package repository. So you have to add IronFox's F-Droid repo before you can install IronFox.

Opening this link in F-Droid allows you to add their repo:
https://fdroid.ironfoxoss.org/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=c5e291b5a571f9c8cd9a9799c2c94e02ec9703948893f2ca756d67b94204f904

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

@[email protected] @[email protected] Zen Browser also seems to have it disabled by default.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks. I actually like the idea of an AI sidebar, but I'm not using it until they let you use any AI rather than a preset list picked by Mozilla.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

There is actually a hidden option in about:config called browser.ml.chat.provider that allows you to set your own chatbot URL. I'm not sure if that works with the context menu setting (I find that annoying, so I haven't tried), but I have set up https://duck.ai/ for example.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

@[email protected] @[email protected] Thank you very much @[email protected] for keeping Firefox clean