The Tor Project recently released Tor Browser 15.0a4 with the usual collection of bug fixes and improvements, but the biggest change is the removal of Firefox"s new AI and machine learning components (Tor Browser is a modified version of Firefox).
It is a bit interesting because while major companies, like Microsoft and Google, are busy adding AI features to their browsers, the Tor developers are actively working to remove them. A contributor to the Tor Project (@henry) noted that the team has not audited the code and cannot realistically audit the trained "black box" behavior of these machine learning models.
They acknowledged that some users might "want to accept the risk of local black box from Mozilla" for certain features, but the project is opting for exclusion first. Components that were removed include the AI chatbot sidebar, which Mozilla rolled out in March, and the link preview feature from May that summarizes pages.
Apart from the removal of the ML stuff, Tor Browser 15.0.a4 removes several Mozilla/Firefox-related branding, like the "cute" little fox graphics, Firefox Home, and the new History Sidebar. Speaking of the History Sidebar, it has been replaced by the old history panel from Tor Browser 14.5, which you can access with the Ctrl + H shortcut.
Tor Browser will no longer hide the protocol (like http or https) of the URL in the address bar on desktop, but it will still remain hidden on Android.
Other small changes include better emoji rendering on Linux thanks to the now-included Noto Color Emoji font, a new Jigmo font which the Tor devs believe results in better rendering for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) glyphs, and better dark theme support for Tor Browser-specific UI components.
You can check out the full release notes here.