Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB Gemini Nano AI model on your device

[dckim@mastodon.social]

@Tutanota I really like the Gemini AI model. I have been using it from the google website, and it seems like it is miles ahead of all others.

This is likely because Google has the largest Data Set of all. The other companies on have a small fraction of the Dataset that Google has, and likewise only fractional access to additional data through scraping/polls

[leberschnitzel@existiert.ch]

@n_dimension you mean like at 2/3rds through the article? @Tutanota

[c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io]

@Tutanota there’s something obscene about using the nano prefix on something so large.

[n_dimension@infosec.exchange]

@leberschnitzel @Tutanota

Didn't get past the clickbite title, but now I'll have a look...

[mokhtarstork@zirk.us]

@Tutanota Time to change to Linux

[lbroggi@livellosegreto.it]

@Tutanota For those who wonder about the CO2 cost, here is a direct quote

At Chrome's scale, the climate bill for one model push, paid in atmospheric CO2 by the entire planet, is between six thousand and sixty thousand tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, depending on how many devices receive the push. That is the environmental cost of one company unilaterally deciding that two billion peoples' default browser will mass-distribute a 4 GB binary they did not request.

[chantology@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@Tutanota

[jetmcquack@mastodon.uno]

@Tutanota

[blindcoder@toot.berlin]

@Tutanota It's not a "can" or "can not" situation. It's a "Google allows you to do that" situation.

[lemgandi@mastodon.social]

@Tutanota Don't be Evil

[feyter@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@Tutanota but how is this model expected to run on my crappy hardware?

[locha@fediscience.org]

@Tutanota Scratching my head: say we assume the best intents, is it better or worse than sending those requests to external server? Silent bloat or spyware?

[mast0d0nphan@beige.party]

@The_Universality @Tutanota They want to crash all local devices so they can sell us AI-slop cloud laptops that we don't control.

Google's new motto: YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY! ALSO WE'RE TOTALLY EVIL!

[yaqubpk@mastodon.social]

@Tutanota install librewolf get rid chrome

[fichusalon@mas.to]

@Tutanota next step, no more data center, but distributed LLM on our computers

[mast0d0nphan@beige.party]

@MokhtarStork @Tutanota As long as you still use Google Chrome on any OS, there's a chance of this happening again. I'd recommend using Cromite, Ungoogled Chromium or Helium instead. Hell, just drop the Chromium monopoly altogether and use LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser or Waterfox.

On Android, I'd recommend Cromite, Ironfox, Fennec, or Iodé.

[mast0d0nphan@beige.party]

@ClintonAnderson @MokhtarStork @Tutanota https://beige.party/@mast0d0nphan/116522033827491424

[pa27@mastodon.social]

@Tutanota On the bright side, none of my machines has the folder "OptGuideOnDeviceModel". So far so good! I'll keep a watch out for it.
As for Claude desktop - why would anyone install that anyway?

[mokhtarstork@zirk.us]

@mast0d0nphan @Tutanota I NEVER used Google Chrome; Never will use Facebook again. My laptop is now Linux. Why? Can't stand 'electronic bugs'.

[the_universality@mastodon.novotnykrystof.com]

@mast0d0nphan @Tutanota Me enjoying a Linux desktop with Brave, Falkon & Tor.