Firefox Beta gets the promised AI kill switch

Earlier this week, Mozilla announced its plans to give users better controls over AI-powered features in Firefox. Unlike Vivaldi, which rejects AI, Mozilla is adding AI experiences, but its approach is more careful than what Google or Microsoft does. Still, there are a lot of users who oppose even such careful implementation, so Mozilla is allowing you to disable everything AI-related with a single button. That button is now available in Firefox Beta.

Firefox 148 Beta 11, the latest preview release, is now available for testing. After updating to it, you can go to Menu > Settings > AI Controls and toggle "Block AI Elements." This will turn off all AI-powered features, such as translation, alt text generation for images in PDF files, tab group suggestions, link key points generation, and chatbots in the sidebar.

Besides giving you a nuclear option, Mozilla allows a more granular approach to AI in Firefox. While you can keep everything off, there is an option to enable separate features. Each of them has three states:

• Available: The feature is visible and available for use.
• Enabled: You have opted in to use the feature.
• Blocked: The feature is disabled.

Interestingly, when you set a feature to "Blocked," Mozilla not only turns it off, but also hides it from your sight, so that inactive AI features do not become an eyesore for users. Additionally, all downloaded models for local AI are deleted when you turn stuff off, and Firefox will not show any banners with prompts to use AI (take notes, Microsoft).

Firefox 148 is currently in Beta, the final testing channel before the public rollout. According to Mozilla's release schedule, Firefox 148 will be available to all users in the stable channel by the end of February. If you want to try Firefox 148 right now, head to the official website to download the latest Beta release.

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Posted Friday 6 February 2026 at 5:21 am AEST (my time).

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