# AI browsing in Brave now available for early testing **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/ai-browsing-in-brave-now-available-for-early-testing/33693 **Category:** General **Tags:** article, software **Created:** 2025-12-10T17:53:58Z **Posts:** 53 ## Post 1 by @yes — 2025-12-10T17:53:58Z > **[AI browsing in Brave now available for early testing | Brave](https://brave.com/blog/ai-browsing/)** > > Today, we're announcing the availability of Brave's new AI browsing feature in Brave Nightly for early experimentation and user feedback. When ready for general release, this agentic experience aims to turn the browser into a truly smart partner,... --- ## Post 2 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T17:58:05Z I’m sorry. Brave going deeper with AI and the already “bloated” browser with all the crypto stuff, it to me is no longer a browser that’s worth using. I don’t want all this. Give me an option to remove it. Other browsers can be hardened and Mullvad Browser existing (with new memory mode coming soon) make for a superior browser to use even for your everyday needs from a privacy & security POV. Ladybird can’t get here soon enough. I also feel like any browser having agentic capabilities even if turned off should be discounted for recommendations on Privacy Guides. --- ## Post 3 by @Encounter5729 — 2025-12-10T18:06:40Z > [@anon57862721](#): > > Give me an option to remove it They do say that > Like all AI features in Brave, AI browsing is completely optional, off by default. And at least on desktop you can remove AI in the UI. --- ## Post 4 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:08:53Z What I mean is, I want the crypto and this new agentic option completely off of the app. Not off by default, I don’t even want the code that runs these features in the browser. That’s what and how I meant by give me an option to remove it. I want the options completely gone and off the app. Also, I can’t yet make a case for the security issues this will cause and has, but PG should think twice before continuing to recommend this browser given this feature’s inevitable addition sometime next year when it “matures”. --- ## Post 5 by @anon12918199 — 2025-12-10T18:22:02Z To me Brave is the kind of browser you can’t just raw dog. I use a group policy file like: [brave.txt](/uploads/short-url/iC1osWU16xpUhYMJIp4GYaPmYx.txt) (1.7 KB) Rename this file to brave.json and put it into your /etc/brave/policies/managed/ directory for it to customize Brave. This works for Linux so I’m not sure about other platforms. That config will make Brave believe that it’s manager by an organization and turn off all of its annoying features that you can’t normally disable through the UI alone. I had Claude generate the config for me, so I can’t be 100% sure that it doesn’t do something stupid too, but it’s been working great for me so far. --- ## Post 6 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:29:37Z > [@anon12918199](#): > > o me Brave is the kind of browser you can’t just raw dog. I actually laughed out loud. Thanks I’d love to give this a shot but don’t know if or how to do this on macOS. --- ## Post 7 by @lyricism — 2025-12-10T18:29:43Z Crazy how nothing can ever just be its own thing anymore. Can I not just have a browser that’s just a browser? Why do I need it to do more than render web pages, exactly??? Make a separate “Brave AI Browser” app if you must. --- ## Post 8 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:30:50Z > [@lyricism](#): > > Can I not just have a browser that’s just a browser? Helium exists. Being made by two guys. Dead simple Chromium without any BS. Also, we have Mullvad browser. > [@lyricism](#): > > Make a separate “Brave AI Browser” app if you must. I agree. --- ## Post 9 by @anon12918199 — 2025-12-10T18:33:27Z Maybe ladybird will save us some day from the browser enshitification wars, but what you’re asking for is virtually impossible as software devs don’t (usually) make software just for fun and it has to be monetized somehow for continued future support and innovation. Browsers in particular are super complex and take a lot of work. --- ## Post 10 by @anon12918199 — 2025-12-10T18:35:36Z It’s likely exactly the same for you as Macs are a type of Linux. You should search on the exact directory to use for Macs. I do highly recommend this type of group policy modification though. I think PG should also recommend it as it greatly improves Brave’s UX and cuts out all the crap from its UI. --- ## Post 11 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:37:31Z I’ll give it a shot and see it it works. But if you can share the path to the folder on macOS, that would be great. I only ask to avoid making a mistake and bricking the browser/app. --- ## Post 12 by @lyricism — 2025-12-10T18:37:50Z Brave is not really its own browser though, it’s a set of Chromium patches. It’s not like they’re building it from scratch, one, and two, they’ve been doing fine until now without using AI, and I don’t think they’re claiming this helps them monetize in any way. > [@anon12918199](#): > > It’s likely exactly the same for you as Macs are a type of Linux. You’re mistaken, macOS and Linux are both Unix-like. That doesn’t mean macOS is a type of Linux or that all the same functionality is supported. For example, there is no /etc/ on macOS. --- ## Post 13 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:38:17Z > [@lyricism](#): > > it’s a set of Chromium patches. Just like Helium. It’s patches all the way through. --- ## Post 14 by @Menkork — 2025-12-10T18:40:33Z Isn’t Helium Ungoogled Chromium though? :grimacing: Plus it’s hard enough to get a great browser that can be sustainable from a large team, let alone two people. --- ## Post 15 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T18:41:57Z At this point, I trust a small team or just a couple guys who have proved they can make a simple product without the BS. Large companies have no idea what they are doing anymore - chasing features and functionality with AI and whatnot is just enshittifying the product even before it is stable or matures. Yes, I think it is ungoogled but you can still install Chrome extensions. I can’t live without my password manager extension on any browser. Though uBO comes preinstalled. --- ## Post 16 by @anon12918199 — 2025-12-10T18:52:07Z All you need to know should be documented here: [https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/360039248271-Group-Policy](https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/360039248271-Group-Policy) > [@lyricism](#): > > You’re mistaken, macOS and Linux are both Unix-like. That doesn’t mean macOS is a type of Linux or that all the same functionality is supported. For example, there is no /etc/ on macOS. OK, I should have been more clear with what I mean. You’re of course correct. I was trying to write that macOS and Linux are very similar, so I’d expect things to work in a very similar way as opposed to Windows. > [@lyricism](#): > > Brave is not really its own browser though, it’s a set of Chromium patches. It’s not like they’re building it from scratch, one, and two, they’ve been doing fine until now without using AI, and I don’t think they’re claiming this helps them monetize in any way. Looking at [GitHub - brave/brave-core: Core engine for the Brave browser for mobile and desktop. For issues https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues](https://github.com/brave/brave-core), Brave seems a lot more involved than any other Chromium-fork that I’ve ever seen and has a bunch of full time devs working on it. --- ## Post 17 by @Valynor — 2025-12-10T18:57:20Z Actually looking forward to try this out. I will definitely wait for the stable release, though. Adding the agentic browsing in a new window and profile seems to be just the right way to go about it, too. If you don’t want to use it it will never get in your way. --- ## Post 18 by @any1 — 2025-12-10T19:02:35Z > [@anon57862721](#): > > Mullvad Browser existing (with new memory mode coming soon) Memory mode :laughing: --- ## Post 19 by @Linus_Sex_Tips — 2025-12-10T19:21:55Z Brave has discovered/disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in agentic browsers in the last few months: [Agentic Browser Security: Indirect Prompt Injection in Perplexity Comet](https://brave.com/blog/comet-prompt-injection/) [Unseeable prompt injections in screenshots: more vulnerabilities in Comet and other AI browsers](https://brave.com/blog/unseeable-prompt-injections/) They are the most likely to get this right and implement the feature carefully in my opinion, and they allow you to use your own local (or hosted elsewhere) models, so you aren’t beholden to the privacy practices of OpenAI/Perplexity/Anthropic. Thank you Brave!! --- ## Post 20 by @KevPham — 2025-12-10T19:25:19Z I do agree that Brave is getting quite bloated. Makes me almost want to switch to Firefox again! But hey, options are options. As long as it won’t impact the non-AI users, I’m happy if they provide a secure option for AI browsing. --- ## Post 21 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T19:29:10Z > [@KevPham](#): > > As long as it won’t impact the non-AI users A case can be made for it even existing in the browser to be an impact for those who don’t want to do anything with such a functionality. I really wish someone smart can just fork Brave, remove the crypto and agentic AI stuff and release it. I’d even pay someone to do this right. That’s how much I detest it. --- ## Post 22 by @Menkork — 2025-12-10T20:07:04Z I’m not trying to criticize your taste, minimalism is great, and I’m all for it. And that’s something I agree with. But I am genuinely trying to understand the mechanics of your objection here. Because you seem to be pretty passionate about hating it. We currently get a browser which is backed by an actual company, and one of the best privacy shield on the market, entirely for free. The developers have to keep the lights on somehow. The crypto isn’t some insidious background miner draining your GPU. It’s just a ledger for how they give you your ad reward payouts. If you disable it, it sits there as inert code. What exactly is the “impact” of a dormant feature you’ve opted out of? Would you rather pay a monthly subscription to remove a feature that is designed to be the alternative to a monthly subscription? That’s a bit like buying a house and offering to pay the contractor extra to brick up the guest room door because the existence of a room you don’t use bothers you. Is it just the principle of the thing, or do you actually believe the “off” switch isn’t working? Again, I’m not criticizing, because I certainly have my fair share of software that I would love if certain parts were just stripped out entirely. I’m just wondering why this is the issue. Because I think a lot of people misunderstand how their crypto system actually works. --- ## Post 23 by @anon36227541 — 2025-12-10T20:07:13Z I’m preeeeeetty sure no one asked for this, like ever. Companies adopt AI because other companies adopt AI. It’s strategic speculation to get ahead in the game. But when you ask your friends, family, classmates, coworkers, and anyone on the street you pass by, I’m pretty confident none of them ever demanded AI to be adopted. The demand for AI is artificial, unreal, fake. At least it is in the space of browsers and search engines and whatever. --- ## Post 24 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T20:15:47Z > [@Menkork](#): > > Would you rather pay a monthly subscription to remove a feature that is designed to be the alternative to a monthly subscription? That’s a bit like buying a house and offering to pay the contractor extra to brick up the guest room door because the existence of a room you don’t use bothers you. Yes, and yes. I like all that Brave offers in terms of privacy and security except these features. And I am in the camp of supporting them if need be or even Ladybird if it meant I get the clean minimal private and secure experience I want without what I consider unnecessary features. > [@Menkork](#): > > What exactly is the “impact” of a dormant feature you’ve opted out of? I prefer the apps I use to be simple, minimal, and just about the product. And its a preference for this. There is no tangible impact as of right now. > [@Menkork](#): > > Is it just the principle of the thing Yes > [@Menkork](#): > > do you actually believe the “off” switch isn’t working? No > [@Menkork](#): > > Because I think a lot of people misunderstand how their crypto system actually works. I don’t care they want to do crypto. I just don’t want it in my browser built in. Sure, I can choose not to use it or bother with it but one should not have to live with it even if it doesn’t do anything to them. – So, hope that is clear. It’s personal preference and opinion for the most part but I do think they should give users an option to fully remove the things they don’t want especially seeing it is an open source product. I am not skilled enough to do it myself and hence my comment above. --- ## Post 25 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T20:23:42Z They are trying to make the AI narrative work as much as everyone seems to be against it as there is no real need for it today and the damage this is causing from so many fronts doesn’t seem to be worth it. You how in the 60s when the US was trying to reach the moon and people were protesting the entirety of NASA saying the resources are better used elsewhere and not for the moon or the Vietnam War? Same analogy. But in this case, who are we fighting or racing for what purpose? It’s just big corporations doing things to show “business” so the stock goes up and the wealthy get wealthier. All this AI and business activity is a ponzi scheme. The burst will however be spectacular to watch though. History repeating itself from last century around the same time almost. 100 year cycles. Humans don’t or rather can’t learn anything. Memories are not painful it seems so we can’t seem to not make the same mistakes every couple decades. --- ## Post 26 by @anon12918199 — 2025-12-10T20:30:12Z > [@anon57862721](#): > > So, hope that is clear. It’s personal preference and opinion for the most part but I do think they should give users an option to fully remove the things they don’t want especially seeing it is an open source product. I am not skilled enough to do it myself and hence my comment above. Technically they do, but it’s hidden away behind group policies that I linked above. I don’t see any of this bloat in my Brave browser. Have you not tried it yet? --- ## Post 27 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T20:48:49Z > [@anon12918199](#): > > Have you not tried it yet? Not yet. I’m still not sure how to and I don’t want to screw anything up. I am a tech savvy user. Not a technical person or even close to a developer. But if guided, I can follow instructions (just not like the Brave website explains it). --- ## Post 28 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-10T21:35:13Z > [@anon12918199](#): > > Have you not tried it yet? OKay.. I tried making sense of making the changes with the info you shared. I failed. Thank you for trying to help though. At-least I know what changes to make if I ever get to where I can make them and have it stick. --- ## Post 29 by @anon82422799 — 2025-12-11T03:26:31Z “This is informative, and unfortunate.”- Louis Rossman Vivaldi it is then. --- ## Post 31 by @win11.shading291 — 2025-12-11T17:33:12Z Just putting [this](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/librewolf-firefox-based-browser/148/349) here. :popcorn: --- ## Post 32 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-11T17:35:08Z > [@anon82422799](#): > > Vivaldi it is then. There are better options. But I’m guessing you already know about them before still choosing Vivaldi. --- ## Post 33 by @Encounter5729 — 2025-12-11T17:36:25Z I just tested it and I actually think it’s great. It is essentially upgraded deep search. The funny thing: it get blocked by Brave search own captcha. Though it works if you tell it to wait for the captcha to complete itself. And for those wondering, it is part of the Leo AI interface, so if you don’t open that menu (or hide it by righ click) this won’t bother you. Edit: it still lackes depth. I asked it to summarise news by going to a series of websites and it only shared the headlines… Even when prompted to read the article, it didn’t consistently cross-referenced news across websites. --- ## Post 34 by @anon82422799 — 2025-12-11T18:19:21Z Yes, that might be true from a privacy perspective. However, it seems that Vivaldi is literally one of the only options left besides vanilla or UnGoogled Chromium or a DeMozzilla’d fork of Firefox at this point that doesn’t have any sort of AI-embedded or agentic “features” baked in at all. I find it ironic that Brave, claiming themselves and their browser to be “ **focused on privacy and security** ”, is going ahead and even further integrating agentic AI “features” into the Brave browser when this technology is already proven to be littered with countless privacy and security issues. I don’t care what the Brave developers say in how they implement it or how “secure”, “private”, and “open source” their implementation is, or how all of this can be “disabled”. I don’t think that very much of their user base has even asked for any of these AI “features”, including even their Leo AI itself being so heavily baked in, especially when one of the major reasons why most people have moved to Brave (as far as I can imagine anyways) is to get away from mainstream browsers like Edge and Chrome that have been forcefully embedded all of this AI garbage to begin with. That is to say, all I want is a nice, clean, functional browser that does its job and only its job. That’s it. I don’t want AI crapware running in the background being able to see and view everything that that I am doing on my web browser and all of the web pages that I visit, just so that it can be more “helpful”. I am pretty sure that there are countless users that feel the exact same way as me. I sincerely hope that Brave sees so much massive and severe backlash and pushback from their user base and community, that it forces them to backtrack on this and not implement yet another unwanted AI “feature” into their browser that I hope that no one that is sane wants. I am quite saddened to see that the amount of browser choices that don’t have any plans of implementing AI/agentic “features” is steadily shrinking. Vivaldi seems to be one of, if not the only browser that so far has publicly came out and said that they were against this trend in browser-embedded AI, and that they have no plans in implementing it into their own browser. This is one of the reasons why I am personally seriously considering moving from Chrome to Vivaldi for my Chromium-based browser. I apologize for this emotionally charged post, to anyone who views this as being so, but that is how strongly I feel about being against this growing trend of AI being irremovably embedded into both operating systems and browsers. --- ## Post 35 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-11T18:38:18Z > [@anon82422799](#): > > at this point that doesn’t have any sort of AI-embedded or agentic “features” baked in at all. Wrong. Helium browser exists, so does the new Orion browser by Kagi that just came out of beta and works really well. Webkit based but can also install Chrome and FF extensions. > [@anon82422799](#): > > That is to say, all I want is a nice, clean, functional browser that does its job and only its job. That’s it. Helium is the answer for you then. – I have the AI stuff in my browser too and would prefer to remove it. But FF right now ain’t so bad and neither is Mullvad Browser. So, there are options left. Don’t become demoralized just yet. --- ## Post 36 by @anon39279085 — 2025-12-11T19:02:05Z Well be it controversial I already cleaned my brave browser and since it is optional and opt-out by default I do have respect for brave for this and I indeed trust they implemented this more securely for those opting in. I really genuinely cannot get the hate when: guys/gals its literally optional, same with duckduckgo, its optional and can be disabled and there’s even a noai version of the site, why dont we just respect that it’s a choice and not forced upon us. Saying to remove it you know they ain’t gonna do it so the least we could do is respect that it is optional. I’m sorry but if you fully anti-ai people for once make yourselves more likable I would appreciate it but you never do (in my experience) unfortunately --- ## Post 37 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-11T19:11:09Z Its not being anti AI for the sake of it. If done well, it has its use cases. But today, given the costs of making it happen for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, I don’t think AI and its development is worth it as much as the companies are trying to make it out to be. There’s a slightly more holistic way to think about AI here at large that you seem to discounting - perhaps unintentionally. Furthermore, we are only sharing our views for why and why not for our liking or disliking of a feature. In this case, again its not anti-AI. I’m personally anti Brave here because it is not something I see that adds value and not a browser I want to use if it even has such capabilities. The browser and the product at large may still be great but I am indeed criticizing the direction they are headed. And a part of the reason is that yes, I don’t like AI things in my browser because it is not for me and would prefer to use one without any AI. Lastly, no one I think is here to be more likable necessarily but only engage as best as we can about the subject matter we’re passionate about to learn from each other and partake in this hobby. If I wanted more people to like me, I’d sell or rather give away ice cream. I’m just trying to be me and express what I think and feel as accurately as I can. --- ## Post 38 by @anon39279085 — 2025-12-11T19:21:54Z a fair assessment indeed, but I would think we universally agreed that brave sucks especially out of the box as it is bloated but other than that does still provide a decent privacy and security out of the box despite that as there;s like almost no other choices but no, now this is the breaking point? I will by all means disrespect companies who force it and/or opts it in in an intrusive way but I see brave and duckduckgo and im like thats fine, I genuinely appreciate that they have the option for those who want an experience with no AI or leave it as is --- ## Post 39 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-11T19:29:40Z Hmm. Fair enough. We all think somewhat differently. Don’t always have to agree 100% with 100% of the things. --- ## Post 40 by @Menkork — 2025-12-11T19:55:11Z > [@Encounter5729](#): > > Brave search own captcha. Though it works if you tell it to wait for the captcha to complete itself. I completely agree with that! I’ve spent all morning racking my brain looking for this, and someone please correct me if I’m wrong here or if I’m just imagining things, but I’m pretty sure there is a source confirming that the Brave team is working on a ‘de-bloated’ version. I use that term a little liberally, though, because I don’t personally agree that it is bogged down, especially considering how easy it is to opt out of features or remove them from the UI. Personally, I wouldn’t mind going back to Firefox. I have no issues with it, I absolutely love it, just as I love Brave. Even though Firefox seems to be going full speed on the AI stuff themselves. My privacy journey actually started back at a law firm, which led to photography, then to publicity. Essentially, it has all been about keeping other people’s secrets safe, which eventually led to IT security work. So, I come primarily from a security background. I know security and privacy are vastly different disciplines, but at some point, they overlap. My ‘security senses’ always tend to start tingling before my privacy ones do. However you might feel about the crypto aspects of Brave, I feel a million times stronger about the fact that at the end of the day, Helium is a very, very small fork of Ungoogled Chromium. So that browser will always be a very hard no for me. But if the AI situation in Brave is completely optional as they claim, I won’t have a problem with it, I can live with that. The way I see it, I don’t use every setting or feature in many applications, so it makes no difference if a feature sits unused in my browser or not. --- ## Post 41 by @anon82422799 — 2025-12-11T20:10:30Z Alright, I will go ahead and check it out. Thank you JG! I apologize if my previously reply seemed a bit harsh or that I was going against you. I wasn’t trying to or anything like that, and I know that you probably feel the same way as me. That’s just how I feel about embedded AI in general and how strong I feel about it. > [@anon57862721](#): > > I have the AI stuff in my browser too and would prefer to remove it. But FF right now ain’t so bad Actually, Mozilla has shown a bit more of a harder pro-AI stance lately, as far as I know. Like always, I may be wrong. For evidence, there is an interesting read and critique about Mozilla’s overall stance on implementing AI in Firefox here: [Mozilla: AI in the browser is disgusting. Please stop.](https://gardinerbryant.com/mozilla-ai-in-the-browser-is-disgusting-please-stop/) It was written by Gardiner Bryant, who you may know formerly as “The Linux Gamer”. His writing is a bit emotionally charged, but it is definitely an interesting read. This is why vanilla Firefox isn’t much of a viable option for me now either. However, I am not trying to turn the direction of this thread into a discussion on Firefox, so I will stop here. --- ## Post 42 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-11T20:13:39Z > [@anon82422799](#): > > That’s just how I feel about embedded AI in general and how strong I feel about it. No worries. All good. Hmm.. well, we’ll have to live with what we can. There’s also Floorp Browser and Librewolf which will never add any AI seeing what the product is supposed to be and why it exists. --- ## Post 43 by @anon82422799 — 2025-12-11T20:19:25Z > [@anon36227541](#): > > I’m preeeeeetty sure no one asked for this, like ever. Companies adopt AI because other companies adopt AI. It’s strategic speculation to get ahead in the game. But when you ask your friends, family, classmates, coworkers, and anyone on the street you pass by, I’m pretty confident none of them ever demanded AI to be adopted. I 100% this. Exactly. Hit the nail right on the head. --- ## Post 44 by @any1 — 2025-12-11T20:40:51Z > [@anon57862721](#): > > Librewolf LibreWolf uses it for page translations only. --- ## Post 45 by @redoomed1 — 2025-12-20T03:31:00Z 8 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Helium (Chromium-based browser)](/t/helium-chromium-based-browser/29225/16) --- ## Post 53 by @Valynor — 2025-12-19T22:57:37Z Please open a new topic, this is not about “AI browsing in Brave now available for early testing” at all anymore.