Mozilla announced in early February that it had implemented its " AI kill switch " in a nightly build after severe community backlash, with the full release slated for Firefox 148. As of February 23, Firefox 148 is officially available for download via the download server ahead of the officially announced February 24 launch date. According to Mozilla, the AI features will remain disabled through updates once they have been disabled via the kill switch.

The AI kill switch isn't the only new change coming to Firefox 148, with Mozilla also slated to add features like a split view and HDR video streaming on Windows, with both features seemingly leaving experimental in build 148. Hardware acceleration is also expected to speed up PDF load times, and the sidebar will be getting a visual update with convenient access to bookmarks, history, AI tools, and the settings menu. As with other Firefox UI elements, the new sidebar is fully customizable in the settings menu.