By now you've all probably heard about the latest shenanigans from Google and their love for in-browser AI features (if you don't, this is the story: https://www.theverge.com/tech/924933/google-chrome-4gb-gemini-nano-ai-features).

[dxzdb@mastodon.social]

@Vivaldi When I mentioned the news someone said "are you sure Opera isn't doing that too?” I said (unprovoked) well I know that Vivaldi isn't I didn't know how right I was! Thanks!

[alexthestampede@maly.io]

@benroyce ohhh, you’re right, it’s gone now! Must’ve been my instance caching things like you said. On the bright side, I might know what happened: one of the latest posts was about being increasingly annoyed with the amounts of… ah, I don’t remember the exact wording! Anyway the strong negativity about AI, regardless of usefulness. So maybe that was the last straw that tipped the scale in favor of leaving the platform?

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@AlexTheStampede

That's crazy

I understand like bigotry but I didn't think the mods had such a line on AI

But I don't know. Maybe sealioning directly at Vivaldi crossed a line. The mods may react to big account complaints or just trolling such accounts on their own

Really bizarre

[keithammann@dice.camp]

@Cal @gbsills @kyu3a @Vivaldi Even noai.duckduckgo.com returns loads of AI results (albeit fewer than regular DuckDuckGo). There's just too much slop out there, and it's drowning out actual content.

[cal@kind.social]

@KeithAmmann @gbsills @kyu3a @Vivaldi
Unfortunately DDG can't do anything about the content of the internet.

There's a browser extension you can get that hides a lot of the slop though

[kranzkrone@quasselkopf.de]

@Vivaldi
Thank you again, for the steady development Vivaldi for the user and definitely not for some shady invasive corporate greed.

(I added some hashtags for better visibility in the Fediverse you may had forgotten, feel free to use them.)

#Ai #Browser #Chrome #Chromium #Code #Dislike #Features #Google #Gemini #Shenanigans #Trend #Vivaldi
@wraith

[gbsills@social.vivaldi.net]

@KeithAmmann @Cal @kyu3a @Vivaldi True, the best we can ask for now is a browser that doesn't actively try to "help" you find slop, or create it locally.

[hipsauerkraut@social.vivaldi.net]

@kyu3a

@thibaultmol @Vivaldi There are one of two extensions who filter AI stuff by default, check the web store.

[ericcarroll@cosocial.ca]

@loremipsum

Didnt know about it, ty.

[alcojor_comic@neopaquita.es]

@lazza

Opt-in means the code will be there, whether I use it or not, making my copy of the software heavier than it should be.

No. If you want AI, you can install some extension, or another browser.

@dalias @Vivaldi

[rataunderground@neopaquita.es]

@Vivaldi pls, Vivaldi as an instalable .deb on Linux, or at least a flatpak!

[alcojor_comic@neopaquita.es]

@lazza

You DO have choice. You can choose not to install Vivaldi. Software inherits its philosophy from the people who develop it. If they don't want AI, it's logical that they won't put it in their browser.

What's not very logical is asking a browser that's all about privacy to add pieces of software that are totally anti-privacy.

@benroyce @Vivaldi

[cygnathreadbare@retro.pizza]

@Vivaldi wouldn't it be easier in the long term to switch to gecko? (and also a lot better for the whole internet, since using chromium means taking part in Google's takeover of the internet even if unwillingly).

I know it's a mamooth task, but still...

[vivaldi@social.vivaldi.net]

@Rataunderground Linux DEB is available on our download page, both 64 bit and ARM64. There is also an available flatpak, which is maintained by one of our employees (altough it's not an official build)

[vivaldi@social.vivaldi.net]

@kranzkrone thank you️ we'll always be focused on the user!

[rataunderground@neopaquita.es]

@Vivaldi thanks! The last time I checked was only snap

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@alcojor_comic @lazza @Vivaldi

there's a mystery with this account

like you, i pushed back on this lazza account as well. soon after, it was suspended

you're reacting to a cache of this account's comments on your server, it no longer exists

if you go to its homepage on mastodon.social, you will see that the four year old account has been wiped out

[alcojor_comic@neopaquita.es]

@benroyce

@Vivaldi I think it was a troll and got banned.

[techienotnetie@social.vivaldi.net]

@pteryx @Vivaldi
We add ifdefs and additionally disable building of files and remove build target dependencies so that the Gemini/Glic code is not compiled into the browser. Other parts are disabled in various ways at run time.

Actually deleting code is too much work, not just when removing it, but every time we update the code base we would have to re-delete the files or the code all over again whenever upstream changes a single character in the deleted code. (And it already takes a week, or longer, to do those update in Git). Deleting it over and over again would make it far more likely that we would sometimes make mistakes, and accidentally leave parts in. It is more reliable to do it the way we do it.

Additionally. what we have disabled compile-time (Gemini/Glic) is just about the only part we can remove that way. I recently tried to remove more of the code around, rather than disable it runtime, and it turned out that what I had to patch didn't just include the proverbial Kitchen sink, it included a bathtub the size of the Pacific Ocean.

Incidentally, since you mentioned a hacker re-enabling things; if you have a hacker on your system who is able to edit executable files, then they could just add their own AI, or replace the browser with their own. No browser can prevent that, no matter what they do.

[1div0@mastodon.social]

@Vivaldi Loved Opera back in time_t now - ¼ century. Then contributed to moz://lla cut the recompilation time_t from 2 hours to 40 minutes by the one liner adding compiler cache. P1$$€D 0ff by https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=460703
https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=reporter:peter.kovar@gmail.com