Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features (blog.torproject.org)

Tor Browser 15.0a4 (alpha) was released with a privacy-first cleanup that strips out a range of recent Firefox/Mozilla AI integrations and branding ahead of a planned stable release in late October. The team explicitly removed features like Mozilla’s AI chatbot sidebar and other ML-driven service integrations because such systems are "inherently un-auditable" from a security/privacy perspective and could imply unwanted recommendation or promotion. The build also rebases onto Firefox/Gecko ESR 140.4 (desktop and Android), updates NoScript to 13.2.1 and OpenSSL to 3.5.4, renames meek-azure pluggable-transport to meek, restores the legacy history panel, improves dark-theme styling and CJK/emoji fonts, and tweaks letterboxing to match upstream changes. For the AI/ML community this is a clear signal: privacy-focused projects are rejecting opaque, integrated model services when auditability and promotion risks exist. Practically, Tor now relies on NoScript to manage WebAssembly per security level (instead of global disabling, which broke the PDF reader), stops hiding URL protocols on desktop, and reduces upstream service surface that could leak metadata or recommend third-party models. The decision highlights developer implications—AI features need transparent, auditable privacy guarantees (or opt-in/local execution) to be acceptable in security-centric ecosystems—and the Tor team is soliciting QA feedback before promotion to stable.