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Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

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Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#12
post #8

I hope we can use LLMs in the browser to censor all ads, clickbait, and annoyances forever. An in-browser LLM will be the ultimate attention preserver if we task it to identify content we don't like and to remove it.

Google will certainly try to prevent that!

Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#13

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I feel like without ample amounts of sandboxing, people are going to find some way to abuse this

Google has never cared that much about people abusing their APIs.

As they often benefit from it e.g. comprehensive browser fingerprinting.

Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#14
post #9

This doesn't seem useful unless it's something standardized across browsers. Otherwise I'd still need to use a plugin to support safari, etc. It seems like it could be nice for something like a bookmarklet or a one-off script, but I don't think it'll really reduce friction in engaging with Gemini for serious web apps.

I don't think so. Chrome is already the most popular browser. If a website decides to use this they are just going to tell users to use Chrome. And then Chrome sustains its dominant position. It's the right strategy for them to further their dominance. And the right way to think about it isn't other browsers. It's Google seeing what Apple is doing in iOS 18 and imitating that.

> It's the right strategy for them.

That's what people said about Internet Explorer

Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#15
Today I finally clicked on that "Create theme with AI" on chrome's default page. I'm really having a hard time trying to differentiate it with selecting any random theme.

At this point I'm going to create an image generator that's just an api to return random images from pixabay. pix.ai (opensource of course)

Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#17

This doesn't seem useful unless it's something standardized across browsers. Otherwise I'd still need to use a plugin to support safari, etc. It seems like it could be nice for something like a bookmarklet or a one-off script, but I don't think it'll really reduce friction in engaging with Gemini for serious web apps.

Browser extensions should be able to shim or even overwrite the `.ai` object in the window, so it should be possible to add ollama etc to all browsers through extensions with the same API, making it a defacto standard

It should be simple enough to do that I believe at least 3-5 people are going to be doing this if it's not done already

Hell, if nobody does it I will do it

Re: Chrome is adding `window.ai` – a Gemini Nano AI model right inside the browser

#20

This doesn't seem useful unless it's something standardized across browsers. Otherwise I'd still need to use a plugin to support safari, etc. It seems like it could be nice for something like a bookmarklet or a one-off script, but I don't think it'll really reduce friction in engaging with Gemini for serious web apps.

I'm sure you realize that Google's strategy has long been the opposite: that users will continue to abandon other engines when theirs is the only one that supports capabilities, until standards no longer matter at all and the entire browser ecosystem is theirs.

Chrome may have been a darling thing when it was young, but is now just a fresh take on Microsoft's Internet Explorer strategy. MS lost it's hold on the web because of regulatory action, and Google's just been trying to find a permissible road to that same opportunity.

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