Firefox, Firefox Focus, Safari and other Apps on iPhone screen

The buttons of the internet browser app Firefox, surrounded by Safari and other apps on the screen of an iPhone (Getty Images)

FIREWALL

Firefox will soon let users block AI features in its browser

As Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge ramp up AI offerings, Firefox is betting people will want an off switch.

Millie Giles

2/4/26 5:12AM

When the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation launched Firefox back in 2004, its mission was to provide the online world with a secure, open-source alternative to the web’s then dominant browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Cut to a little over two decades later, and Firefox is still trying to set itself apart in the crowded browser landscape. On Monday, Mozilla announced in a blog post that a new “AI control” update to Firefox will enable users to toggle individual AI features on and off, such as translations, enhanced tab grouping, and its built-in AI chatbot.

Bot-com bubble?

The preference settings will be available on Firefox 148, which launches on February 24, and will allow users to “block current and future generative AI features” and “review and manage” these at their discretion. The pivot toward opting in for AI comes at a time when leading browsers are increasingly building the tech into their products as the default.

Browser market share 2026 chart — Sherwood News

Just last week, Google unveiled plans to embed more Gemini-powered AI features into Chrome — the biggest web browser today by some way, commanding an almost monopolistic ~71% share of the market, per Statcounter. These features include image generator tool Nano Banana, an “Auto browse” ability, and a chatbot panel in its viewing window.

While Microsoft retired Internet Explorer in 2022 after a precipitous drop in usage, the company’s hoping that an experimental AI-powered Copilot Mode in its Edge browser will help it catch up with competitors. Apple’s Safari, the second-biggest web browser by market share at (a still much smaller) 15%, has also recently outlined plans to offer AI-powered searches.

Before this new announcement, even Firefox itself had spent the past year trying to draw consumers with newfangled AI tools, like its “shake to summarize” iPhone feature, released last September. Rather than fighting a losing battle against tech giants like Google, maybe Mozilla now thinks that appealing to the cohort that wants less to do with artificial intelligence might help it to win back at least some search engine purists.

Chris Stokel-Walker

Bot bias

6/17/26

Companies are getting AI chatbots to smear their competitors

The race to influence AI chatbots is leading to some companies to adopt shady competitive tactics.

Tom Jones6/17/26

Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals

Gold Tesla Cybercabs are piling up, but they’re not picking up passengers yet

Low-volume production started in April. Now people are noticing them more and more in the wild.

Rani Molla6/15/26

Millie Giles

TAKING ACCOUNTS

6/15/26

Britain announces social media ban for under-16s starting early 2027

The UK government plans to use the same model for the restrictions as Australia — but how successful has that case study been so far?

UK Prime Minister Announces Under-16s Social Media Ban

Jon Keegan6/15/26

Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5