In Abrowser 145.0.2 general settings: "Use AI to suggest tabs ..."
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Last night updated Trisquel 11.0. Checking the Abrowser settings afterwards, it's now 145.0.2, noted that under "General" - "Tabs", the last box was prechecked(!): "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups" In my opinion, this should not be included at all, and certainly NOT prechecked!
Another thing: in "Privacy & Security" - "Permissions" - "Autoplay Settings..." has two things already written in it:
about:welcome Allow Audio and Video
about:welcome^privateBrowsingID=1 Allow Audio and Video
I've pressed "Remove all websites" and pressed "Save Changes", changed it to "Block Audio and Video" for both and pressed "Save Changes", but my preferences don't get saved, when I look at it again after closing this window, the two things are still written in there.
I've looked at "What's new" for Abrowser 145.0.2, which takes one to
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/abrowser-help
where it mentions Machine Learning: "Machine learning and LLM introduce privacy issues when using third party services, and for local models they need to be vetted and establish some level of trust by the user. This tool is disabled by default, you can manage this by searching for browser.ml in about:config."
When searching for browser.ml in about:config, I count 47 lines that contain browser.ml Do I (not good with tech) need to change anything there to make sure Abrowser won't use AI, or it's all good as entered there?
Thanks in advance to the people looking into these things!
I am a translator!
under "General" - "Tabs", the last box was prechecked(!): "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups"
With abrowser 145.0.2 on Ecne, I don't see any such option. Maybe it is because I don't use tab groups?
Do I (not good with tech) need to change anything there to make sure Abrowser won't use AI
From reading https://blog.mozilla.org/en/category/firefox/firefox-ai/, it seems a system called "Transformer" (I find the name "AI" too vague, and generally completely meaningless) is used for these tab group names, to provide alt text for certain images, for link previews (to make a summary) and for translation.
I am not sure about how to control the alt text generation. For the other features, I guess that if you don't use them, no transformer will be used anyway.
Reading how companies train the models for their transformers, this make me think that I should not trust them at all. This trend reminds me of 30 years ago when many people were expecting computers to always say things that are right. However, as my colleagues used to say: garbage in, garbage out.
> With abrowser 145.0.2 on Ecne, I don't see any such option.
This seems to depend on your locale.
I am getting that checkbox (checked by default) on both Trisquel 11 and 12 with the default English US locale, but not on a Trisquel 11 system where the language for Abrowser is set to French.
There is a line in about:config, browser.ml.linkPreview.noKeyPointsRegions (not sure what that's for) that lists several countries. The one I'm in is not listed there. Maybe if I added my country there, then certain lines wouldn't appear as options in the Abrowser settings?
The AI function initially was avariable in the version 143 to 144, but since the security update of Abrowser 144.0.2 in the Trisquel Aramo build, that option has been hidden for those that uses the locales. However, the AI options seems to be butchered from the source code in the same way than Iceweasel from Parabola GNU/Linux-libre, which makes that function as a mere engraving than a real function.
And about the "AI/fuzzy logic" feature of Transformer, it seems that was a revival of Mozilla Ubiquity that usually serves for that purpose. However, I tested it on my netbook and the performance seems to be lighter than the custom build of a patched Firefox binary for Windows Vista, which the performance seems to be more penalized than running Abrowser for Trisquel. Unfortunately, the AI/Fuzzy Logic feature depends so much of usage and/or browsing history, bringing so much heruistical results more often than pre-scripted history-based features. TL;DR: Even using the LISP engine of Emacs on Abrowser seems to be more useful and transparent than Firefox Transformer engine that could bring you buggy results.
>Last night updated Trisquel 11.0. Checking the Abrowser settings afterwards, it's now 145.0.2, noted that under "General" - "Tabs", the last box was prechecked(!): "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups" In my opinion, this should not be included at all, and certainly NOT prechecked!
Abrowser disable most, if not all AI features. This kind of reports are better handled on the Trisquel's gitlab instance under package-helpers with specific steps to reproduce the issue, and as much details possible so it can be tracked and pondered accordingly.
Regards.
Ark74, please know that I appreciate all your work for Trisquel! Read on the package-helpers page you gave the Link for, am afraid the steps required there, at this time, are beyond my capabilities as an 'ordinary' not-so-good-with-tech user.
In Abrowser 145.0.2 "Settings" --> "General" --> "Browser Layout", the third box is for "Show sidebar: Qickly access bookmarks, tabs from your phone, AI chatbots and more without leaving your main view." Should Abrowser include reference to AI chatbots here when according to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chatbots most are proprietary, not libre?
[There is a lot of proprietary software being used by people, and it is nice to be able to come to a place, Trisquel, like a refuge, that aims to use and encourage the use of libre software.]
Looking at all the lines containing browser.ml in about:config, can someone please comment on browser.ml.enable being set to true, whether this is fine, or set to false might be better, and why, respectively. Thanks for any replies!
It appears that the "ml" segment spamming the name of those settings does indeed stand for "machine learning".
Once you have created an account on https://gitlab.trisquel.org/users/sign_up the following link will teleport you directly to the issue template: https://gitlab.trisquel.org/trisquel/package-helpers/-/issues/new?description_template=Default.
You only need to fill-in the template with the information you reported in this thread, and click on "Create issue".
I have learnt just now about this new trend, baking AI into Firefox... just when I thought that Microsoft's insistence on pouring AI down their users' throats would make people come to GNU/Linux...
November 13:
Official Mozilla Blog: Introducing AI, the Firefox way: A look at what we're working on and how you can help shape it
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-window/
December, 16:
Mozilla's New CEO: It's Time to Evolve Firefox Into an AI Browser | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/news/mozillas-new-ceo-its-time-to-evolve-firefox-into-an-ai-browser
Mozilla Bets Trust And User-First AI Wins The New Browser Wars
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenwolfepereira/2025/12/16/mozilla-bets-trust-and-user-first-ai-wins-the-new-browser-wars/
Mozilla appoints new CEO, unveils new AI focus – Computerworld
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4107464/mozilla-appoints-new-ceo-unveils-new-ai-focus.html
Mozilla names insider Enzor-DeMeo as CEO, looks to add AI features to Firefox | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/mozilla-names-insider-enzor-demeo-ceo-looks-add-ai-features-firefox-2025-12-16/
December, 17:
Mozilla Pivots to 'AI-First' Firefox, Sparking Privacy Backlash - WinBuzzer
https://winbuzzer.com/2025/12/17/mozilla-pivots-to-ai-first-firefox-sparking-privacy-backlash-xcxwbn/
Mozilla says Firefox will evolve into an AI browser, and nobody is happy about it — "I've never seen a company so astoundingly out of touch" | Windows Central
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/mozilla-says-firefox-will-evolve-into-an-ai-browser-and-nobody-is-happy-about-it-ive-never-seen-a-company-so-astoundingly-out-o...
Firefox gets a new CEO and instantly goes big on AI, but in a good way
https://www.xda-developers.com/firefox-gets-a-new-ceo-and-instantly-goes-big-on-ai/
There is a wide range of opinions:
-Simong Batt from XDA describes the change in a good light: "Firefox will add AI assistants that respect privacy, warn users, and can be disabled".
-Zac Bowden from Windows Central describes the change in a bad light: "People aren't happy with Mozilla's direction of pushing into AI".
The question for Firefox users would be, 'Can Mozilla be trusted to bake AI into Firefox in a non-instrusive way?' and for Abrowser users (all of the people in this thread, I presume) the questions would be, 'Can Abrowser be trusted to keep AI off? Do we need to tweak Abrowser from now in order to keep the AI off? Can we just get a Gecko-based browser with guaranteed absence of AI?'.
P.S. When I hit "Preview" and see a preview of my post, at the bottom there is a miniature of an image that I did not include... https://trisquel.info/files/repository_0.png
Thank you @Ignacio.Agullo for all the links, I had no idea. Only had noticed some different settings in Abrowser.
Someone on the FSF forum pointed to the following link, the first post there contains the statement: "Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features."
https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500373677782
Glad to hear the intention is there. Will have to wait for that to be implemented, and in the meantime check the Abrowser settings, and maybe look in about:config what is all listed for browser.ml (though I likely wouldn't know what to change if something needed changing), after each update.
> 'Can Abrowser be trusted to keep AI off? Do we need to tweak Abrowser from now in order to keep the AI off? Can we just get a Gecko-based browser with guaranteed absence of AI?'.
Volunteers are always welcome to join and help with the challenge. We are struggling to increase the dev team, and that's no good in a long term.
I believe the short and best answer could be, we'll do our best effort to the extend of our habilites and resources.