Firefox teams with Mistral for AI browsing

Mozilla's web browser Firefox unveiled Wednesday an AI assistant powered by the French start-up Mistral, promising strict privacy protections as worries grow about artificial intelligence's capabilities.

The "Smart Window" on Firefox will rely on open-source models, and the non-profit group said it would not sell personal data or "use your conversations to train models".

Alarm is growing worldwide that artificial intelligence capabilities are progressing faster than developers can control, prompting calls for stronger government regulation.

"We are bringing privacy, control and choice to AI-powered web browsing," Mistral chief executive Arthur Mensch said in a statement.

Chatbot prompts and responses will not be saved on Mozilla servers, and Mistral has promised there will be no retention of private data -- a key feature for a growing number of corporate AI clients as developers roll out more powerful models.

"A browser shouldn't be a one-way funnel. It should preserve what made the internet powerful to begin with: the freedom to explore, discover different ideas and tech, and decide for ourselves where to go next," Mozilla's CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo said in the statement.

Mistral said last week it had raised three billion euros in what it called the largest-ever European tech fundraising, propelling its overall value to 21 billion euros ($24 billion).

It remains much smaller than AI giants such as OpenAI or Claude maker Anthropic, but positions itself as offering models that clients can run themselves with their own data.

"This partnership represents two open-source advocates working together to bring Mistral's scientific innovations to Mozilla's consumers around the world," Mensch said.

The Smart Window assistant will first be available in North America and France, and rolled out to Britain and Germany later this year.