Mozilla Scales Back Dramatically, Will Focus on Trustworthy AI in Firefox

Mozilla announced a reorganization that will result in layoffs, fewer products, and a new focus on trustworthy AI in its Firefox web browser.

“We’re scaling back investment in some products in order to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success,” a Mozilla statement notes. “We intend to re-prioritize resources against products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”

According to a report in Bloomberg that was the first to highlight this retreat, Mozilla will cut 60 jobs, primarily in product development, or about 5 percent of its workforce. But TechCrunch published an internal Mozilla memo that provides more detail.

The biggest change is that Mozilla is scaling back its investments in offerings that have little chance of success. It is stepping back from its Mastodon-based mozilla.social social media platform and will instead “participate in the Mastodon ecosystem” using a much smaller team. It is likewise walking away from its consumer security and privacy products—Mozilla VPN, Relay, and Online Footprint Scrubber (which was just announced as Mozilla Monitor Plus)—to focus instead on “products addressing customer needs in growing market segments.” And it is winding down its work on its Hubs 3D virtual worlds due to a lack of interest and demand.

Looking to the future, Mozilla, like the rest of the personal technology industry, sees AI as a potential savior.

“In 2023, generative AI began rapidly shifting the industry landscape,” the memo explains. “Mozilla seized an opportunity to bring trustworthy AI into Firefox, largely driven by the Fakespot acquisition and the product integration work that followed. Additionally, finding great content is still a critical use case for the internet. Therefore, as part of the changes today, we will be bringing together Pocket, Content, and the AI/ML teams supporting content with the Firefox organization.”

Mozilla promises more details to follow. But it will also reduce the headcount in staffing and support while leaving MDN (developer documentation), ads, Fakespot, legal/policy, finance and business operations, marketing, and strategy and operations untouched.

It’s not clear from the report who authored the memo, but Mozilla recently announced that board member Laura Chambers was assuming the CEO role at the company, with long-time Mozillan Mitchell Baker moving back to her previous role as executive chairwoman. The firm also recently lashed out at the anti-competitive tactics that Apple, Google, and Microsoft have employed over two decades to artificially hobble Firefox and protect their dominant platforms.

A renewed focus on Firefox isn’t a horrible idea. Perhaps Mozilla will consider truly innovating in this space yet again, as I recently recommended.