December 16, 2025
Your tabs, or your soul?
No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter
Waterfox says “no AI*” while Firefox flirts with robo-tabs — commenters split
TLDR: Waterfox pledges no AI layer in its browser, calling chatbots opaque and risky, as Mozilla leans into AI under a new CEO. Comments erupt: some want local, controllable AI, others fear black-box meddling and delays, while jokers imagine bots canceling meetings—because how you browse is how you live online.
Waterfox just dropped a spicy manifesto: no AI* in the browser. While Mozilla’s new boss vows to make the company “the world’s most trusted software” with AI at the center, Waterfox argues large language models (LLMs—chatty prediction machines) are opaque, un-auditable, and don’t belong between you and your tabs. Cue comment-section fireworks.
One camp says chill and experiment. User almosthere joked, “If the LLM starts cancelling our meetings and emailing people we’re crazy, that would suck,” but still thinks dipping a toe is fine. Another camp is side-eyeing hard: zavec shrugs that this is “nice for non-technical folks,” worries about slower security fixes, and wonders why we need more “indirection” at all. Meanwhile, clueless drops the pragmatic hot take: people want AI in the browser, just not a big-corp cloud model—give us local AI we can control.
There’s meta-drama too: a link to Mozilla’s new CEO keeps popping up, with some reading Waterfox’s post as a clapback against Firefox’s AI-first pivot. The heartburn is trust—Mozilla says AI will be optional, but critics ask how you “audit” a black box. Fans cheer Waterfox’s old-school “user agent” vibe; others say the future is AI, like it or not. Pass the popcorn, everyone.
Key Points
- •Mozilla’s new CEO announced an AI-centered strategy to position Mozilla as a trusted software company and evolve Firefox into a modern AI browser.
- •Waterfox’s maintainer states Waterfox will not include AI features, asserting browsers should act strictly as user agents.
- •The article contrasts the auditable, local Bergamot translation project with opaque, hard-to-audit large language models.
- •Concerns are raised that an LLM layer could mediate user interactions, altering tabs, history, and content without transparent logic, even if AI features are optional.
- •The author frames Mozilla’s move within market pressures, noting Firefox’s declining share, need to diversify revenue from search, and reports of Alphabet developing a browser separate from Chrome.