Tor Browser Ditches AI: Why Privacy Trumps Convenience

Tor Browser v15.0a4 has been released, with the most significant change the removal of Mozilla Firefox’s built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning components. Built on Mozilla Firefox’s open‑source foundation, the Tor Browser has long undergone security audits by the Tor development team, who emphasise privacy-focused code integrity and security assurance.

According to project contributor Henry, the team has not yet conducted a full code audit and therefore cannot properly evaluate the black-box behaviour of Mozilla’s AI and machine learning models, particularly their training processes and prompt data.

Tor developers have opted to exclude all AI-related modules in the interests of security, even though some users might accept the risks of running Mozilla’s locally integrated black-box AI for convenience, and removed features include the AI chat sidebar and the page summary preview links.

The update also notes that the desktop edition now displays full HTTP and HTTPS protocol names in the address bar, while the Android version keeps them hidden, and Jigmo font has been adopted to improve CJK character rendering for East Asian languages.