Anthony Enzor-DeMeo has taken up his role as CEO of Mozilla Corporation, publishing a blog post to mark his arrival in which he spells out the company’s “next chapter”.
The title of that next chapter? ‘AI’, obviously.
Enzor-DeMeo commits to keeping Firefox as an “anchor” for the company, but confirms its to “evolve into a modern AI browser”, chiefly to unlock a more diverse set of revenue opportunities for the company as its marketshare declines.
For all the boosterism, the announcement is surprisingly light on the GPT-isms much of Mozilla’s public output is afflicted by suggesting that, in part, a human wrote it — a small irony given those words lay out a future where humans don’t read other humans words…
My snarky explainer on Mozilla’s ‘rewiring’ to AI (where year-on-year revenue increases from AI features form part of the company’s new “double bottom line”) touched on reasons why the growing glut of AI in Firefox is more about C-suite’s comfort than those in cattle-class (i.e., us).
Mozilla’s AI strategy hinges, in part, on its upcoming Firefox AI Window, which offers a prompt-driven interface powered by a cloud AI provider of your choice where you type questions not URLs, and read machine-mediated summaries of what a human is said to have wirtten.
Rather than, as you’re doing now, read what a human actually wrote.
AI Features in Firefox Will be Opt-Out?
Mozilla’s new CEO says all of the upcoming changes will give us all “agency” (the corp’s new favourite word), but his phrasing reveals the catch: Enzor-DeMeo says it is important that AI features in Firefox are “something people can easily turn off”.
Turn off? So, enabled by default, then.
Mozilla’s revenue needs point one way, and its talk of offering ‘agency’ point the other
Being able to opt-out is agency (I guess), but if diverting revenue through AI is part of this “double bottom line”, how easy will “easily” actually be?
A single button presented on first run, or will it mean diving through menus, opening about:config, or configuring an enterprise policy?
Because Mozilla’s revenue needs point one way, while the constant framing of our agency points the other.
The bulk of Mozilla’s revenue coming from its Google search deal. But the rise of AI chatbots paired with Firefox’s declining marketshare means even that is on shaky grounds. Turning Firefox from user-agent to AI platform puts a “For Rental” sign over the door – in hopes big tech comes calling.
Integration deals with AI providers – Firefox added Perplexity as a search option recently – is likely the company’s only real way to replace Google (or at least use it as a leverage stick to convince it to keep paying).
Which begs a question…
AI features: for our benefit, or Mozilla’s bottom line?
“Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions”, the new CEO says.
A buffet where we pick our preferred flavour of algorithmic mediation from a menu of Big AIs
Even if we assume the world is gagging for a ‘modern AI browser’, Mozilla lacks its own stack — which means we, the users, get a false choice.
OpenAI’s Atlas, Perplexity’s Comet, Google’s Chrome (and Disco), and Microsoft Edge have something Mozilla’s AI Firefox won’t: their own AI models, infrastructure, talent and scale – plus billions to keep spending on it.
Mozilla relies on integrating other companies’ AI for intensive tasks, with smaller on-device models (most derived from Meta’s open-source Llama, though Zuckerberg is reportedly making the successor proprietary) for task-specific features.
Firefox AI Window will continue this trend, giving us the “agency” to filter our every whim, wish and wonder through ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini…
Was the name ‘AI Window’ chosen out of irony? It doesn’t let you see the web; it stands in front of it to describe a hallucinated version of the view.
The logic on why this benefits end users is somewhat circular: to fight Big AI, Firefox will host a Big AI buffet where we pick our preferred flavour of algorithmic mediation from a limited menu, which in turn gooses Big AI to further silo us from each other. Agency!
If Mozilla gets this wrong… An AI-focused Firefox might generate revenue, but revenue relies on users, right? A failed AI-focused Firefox – doesn’t attract new users, drives away existing ones – could spell doom for this vital bulwark against browser monoculture.
Desperation or innovation?
I accept that Mozilla’s dilemma is real: Google search deal is shaky, browser donations don’t scale and competing on (belated) features alone isn’t moving the needle on its steep marketshare declines.
Yet rather than doubling down on what it does well, i.e., giving real choice and actual agency in a web landscape increasingly hostile to both, Mozilla’s new leadership wants to… Chase the same AI gold rush everyone else is, but with fewer resources and less credibility.
As someone who chose Firefox because it wasn’t doing the same things other companies were, was committed to open standards and championing an open web where the little guys’ needs weren’t overlooked for the Goliaths’, I’m kind of left wondering who’s fighting for us?
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