add content/posts/2026-03-28-disable-firefox-ai-slop.md

1 files changed, 80 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/content/posts/2026-03-28-disable-firefox-ai-slop.md b/content/posts/2026-03-28-disable-firefox-ai-slop.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c528a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/posts/2026-03-28-disable-firefox-ai-slop.md
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+---
+slug: disable-firefox-ai-slop
+title: "Disable Firefox AI Slop"
+date: "2026-03-28T08:50:51-04:00"
+---
+
+I restarted [Firefox][] after an update, and my laptop fan started going
+berzerk.
+
+The culprit was a background thread pegged at 100% CPU for one of the
+new AI "features" in [Firefox][]; presumably doing inference for a local
+model.
+
+I disabled this junk, and you should too.
+
+Steps:
+
+1. Go to Settings.
+2. Click "AI Controls" on the left sidebar.
+3. Click the "Block AI enhancements" radio button.
+4. Set all of the drop-down menus to "Blocked" in the "On-device AI"
+   section.
+5. Set all of the drop-down menus to "Blocked" in the "AI chatbot
+   providers in sidebar" section.
+6. (Optional) Send [Mozilla][] a nastygram.  Let them know how you
+   feel about features which waste your CPU, battery, disk space, and
+   time for no discernable benefit.  Profanity encouraged!
+
+This absurd gaggle of misfeatures should have always been [opt-in][],
+not [opt-out][].
+
+I also resent the [Orwellian][] [doublespeak][] that [Mozilla][] is
+[using][] to describe this nonsense.
+
+Definitions:
+
+- [opt-in][]: A feature which is **disabled by default**.  The
+  user must take an explicit action to enable the feature.
+- [opt-out][]: A feature which is **enabled by default**.  The
+  user must take an explicit action to disable the feature.
+
+The intentional obfuscation suggests that [Mozilla][] was aware it was
+inappropriate to enable this claptrap by default.
+
+[George Lakoff][] wrote about the use of [Orwellian][] language in
+politics in ["Don't Think of an Elephant!"][elephant]:
+
+> But we should recognize that they use Orwellian language precisely
+> when they have to: when they are weak, when they cannot just come out
+> and say what they mean. Imagine if they came out supporting a “Dirty
+> Skies Bill” or a “Forest Destruction Bill” or a “Kill Public
+> Education” bill. They would lose. They are aware people do not support
+> what they are really trying to do.
+>
+> Orwellian language points to weakness -- Orwellian weakness. When you
+> hear Orwellian language, note where it is, because it is a guide to
+> where they are vulnerable.
+
+[firefox]: https://firefox.org/
+  "Firefox web browser"
+[mozilla]: https://mozilla.org/
+  "Mozilla"
+[doh]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_over_HTTPS
+  "DNS over HTTPS (Wikipedia)"
+[opt-in]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opt-in
+  "Definition of opt-in (Wiktionary)"
+[opt-out]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opt-out
+  "Definition of opt-out (Wiktionary)"
+[orwellian]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwellian
+  "Orwellian (Wikipedia)"
+[doublespeak]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak
+  "Doublespeak: language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words (Wikipedia)"
+[using]: https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500918701463
+  "Mozilla doublespeek on Mastodon"
+[george lakoff]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff
+  "George Lakoff (Wikipedia)"
+[elephant]: https://www.amazon.com/ALL-NEW-Dont-Think-Elephant/dp/160358594X
+  "Don't Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff (Amazon)"
+[unused-kb-ai-controls-unused]: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-ai-controls>
+[unused-tea-consent]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8