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  3. "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

"Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

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  • ariarhythmic@ohai.socialA ariarhythmic@ohai.social

    @axeln @benjaoming They already have the browser itself for that, downloading the model is part of the control

    axeln@norden.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
    axeln@norden.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
    axeln@norden.social
    wrote last edited by
    #8

    @ariarhythmic @benjaoming Exactly. Now imagine being able to orchestrate those billions of 4GB LLMs. That’s a huge data center, with your users paying the electricity bill.

    kichae@wanderingadventure.partyK 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • benjaoming@social.data.coopB benjaoming@social.data.coop

      "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

      Recommended to read some of the details in this report... It's completely bonkers and immoral, whether because of privacy or climate. There is zero respect for the user nor planet left.

      Link Preview Image
      Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!

      Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.

      favicon

      That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)

      epicdemiologist@wandering.shopE This user is from outside of this forum
      epicdemiologist@wandering.shopE This user is from outside of this forum
      epicdemiologist@wandering.shop
      wrote last edited by
      #9

      @benjaoming Thank you. Uninstalled Chrome, which I rarely use anyway.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • benjaoming@social.data.coopB benjaoming@social.data.coop

        "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

        Recommended to read some of the details in this report... It's completely bonkers and immoral, whether because of privacy or climate. There is zero respect for the user nor planet left.

        Link Preview Image
        Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!

        Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.

        favicon

        That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)

        kens@mastodon.unoK This user is from outside of this forum
        kens@mastodon.unoK This user is from outside of this forum
        kens@mastodon.uno
        wrote last edited by
        #10

        @benjaoming
        Shortly...
        Google?
        Chrome???
        Never!

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • benjaoming@social.data.coopB benjaoming@social.data.coop

          "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

          Recommended to read some of the details in this report... It's completely bonkers and immoral, whether because of privacy or climate. There is zero respect for the user nor planet left.

          Link Preview Image
          Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!

          Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.

          favicon

          That Privacy Guy! (www.thatprivacyguy.com)

          ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
          ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
          ferricoxide@blahaj.zone
          wrote last edited by
          #11

          @benjaoming@social.data.coop

          So, while I
          have Chrome installed, I'm going to guess I haven't launched Chrome since they started this fuckery?

          Link Preview Image
          benjaoming@social.data.coopB ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF 3 Replies Last reply
          0
          • ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF ferricoxide@blahaj.zone

            @benjaoming@social.data.coop

            So, while I
            have Chrome installed, I'm going to guess I haven't launched Chrome since they started this fuckery?

            Link Preview Image
            benjaoming@social.data.coopB This user is from outside of this forum
            benjaoming@social.data.coopB This user is from outside of this forum
            benjaoming@social.data.coop
            wrote last edited by
            #12

            @ferricoxide it would be interesting with a before/after test for sure! thanks for sharing!

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF ferricoxide@blahaj.zone

              @benjaoming@social.data.coop

              So, while I
              have Chrome installed, I'm going to guess I haven't launched Chrome since they started this fuckery?

              Link Preview Image
              ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
              ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
              ferricoxide@blahaj.zone
              wrote last edited by
              #13

              @benjaoming@social.data.coop

              Also, I tend to make use of multiple (per) browser profiles to keep "personal" and "work" (etc.) wholly separate from each other. If I had two profiles under my user account, would I end up with 8GiB in models getting shoved onto my system?

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF ferricoxide@blahaj.zone

                @benjaoming@social.data.coop

                So, while I
                have Chrome installed, I'm going to guess I haven't launched Chrome since they started this fuckery?

                Link Preview Image
                ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
                ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF This user is from outside of this forum
                ferricoxide@blahaj.zone
                wrote last edited by
                #14

                @benjaoming@social.data.coop

                Also, I tend to make use of multiple (per) browser profiles to keep "personal" and "work" (etc.) wholly separate from each other. If I had two profiles under my user account, would I end up with 8GiB in models getting shoved onto my system?

                benjaoming@social.data.coopB 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • ferricoxide@blahaj.zoneF ferricoxide@blahaj.zone

                  @benjaoming@social.data.coop

                  Also, I tend to make use of multiple (per) browser profiles to keep "personal" and "work" (etc.) wholly separate from each other. If I had two profiles under my user account, would I end up with 8GiB in models getting shoved onto my system?

                  benjaoming@social.data.coopB This user is from outside of this forum
                  benjaoming@social.data.coopB This user is from outside of this forum
                  benjaoming@social.data.coop
                  wrote last edited by
                  #15

                  @ferricoxide those are all good questions - I'm cheering for you to go and make the experiment with your local installation and share your findings (before uninstalling Chrome)

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • axeln@norden.socialA axeln@norden.social

                    @ariarhythmic @benjaoming Exactly. Now imagine being able to orchestrate those billions of 4GB LLMs. That’s a huge data center, with your users paying the electricity bill.

                    kichae@wanderingadventure.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                    kichae@wanderingadventure.partyK This user is from outside of this forum
                    kichae@wanderingadventure.party
                    wrote last edited by
                    #16

                    axel. No one wants to use 4GB LLMs, though. Even the 20GB version of Gemma is frustratingly "stupid" and "insubordinate". A 4GB model is going be impossibly unreliable. There's no value in using these as a distributed data centre.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • dckim@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                      dckim@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                      dckim@mastodon.social
                      wrote last edited by
                      #17

                      @liquor_american @benjaoming i think i'll search for it now. And maybe I should read the blog post... hmmm...

                      dckim@mastodon.socialD 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • dckim@mastodon.socialD dckim@mastodon.social

                        @liquor_american @benjaoming i think i'll search for it now. And maybe I should read the blog post... hmmm...

                        dckim@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                        dckim@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                        dckim@mastodon.social
                        wrote last edited by
                        #18

                        @liquor_american @benjaoming

                        I don't think I have it, so I feel sort of ripped off right now.

                        I tried asking the AI from google to tell me where it is.

                        1 Reply Last reply
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