Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thatprivacyguy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 1001 posts

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

#411

Post by red-iron-pine »

expedition32 wrote: post #243
jeroenhd wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Google stuffs AI into everything, people shrug. Can't expect anything else from big tech. When Firefox does it, it sparks outrage across the internet, with entire forums filled with people vowing to leave Firefox forever and switching to something like Waterfor or Ilp/Zorp/Floop instead. As a result, searching for experiences other people had with Firefox makes it sound like hell on earth, while people have litt…

Mozilla is nice enough to let you opt out. I'm in my 40s I have no desire for this new technology unless we get the kind of AI from Japanese anime.

> "RMS style curl works for me unless I can have Hatsune Miku"

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

#412

Post by kevincox »

wuschel wrote: post #147
scriptsmith wrote: post #31

If Chrome has the #optimization-guide-on-device-model and #prompt-api-for-gemini-nano flags enabled, either because it's part of some Origin Trial / Early Stable Release or something, then web pages will have access to the new Prompt API which allows any webpage to initiate the (one-time) download of the ~2.7 GiB CPU or ~4.0 GiB GPU model using LanguageModel.create() https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/prompt-api Wh…

It is a small model, so what utility can I / Google expect from it? What is the on-board model used for?

I find models of this size (not tested this one specifically) at being very good at simple data extraction from user input. Think about things like parsing date and time of an event from a description or parsing a human-typed description of a repeating event rule.

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

#413

Post by bpye »

TrackerFF wrote: post #321
dotcoma wrote: post #10

Why use a browser from Google or Microsoft in 2026? Why in the world?

Easy. You work for a company that has only whitelisted chrome or edge.

Nothing says you have to use the same browser at work and outside of work? I use Edge for work, Firefox everywhere else.

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

#414

Post by vrganj »

jve wrote: post #172
vrganj wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our planet is literally dying. The oceans are boiling [0], marine life is dying [1]. Land close to the water will be land under water soon [2]. The ice caps are melting and setting free all sorts of diseases. [3] Large parts of our planet on fire all the time now, here's one from Australia from this year [4], but I'm sure you've read about wildfires in Australia last year, California every year, Greece last year etc…

Have you ever made a decision to NOT download something, turn on your computer, experiment, etc based on your perceived impact on the planet? I mean this should (and is) be tackled at the source: 0/low emission energy generation and not consumer having to think about these decisions. Sustainable data centers using renewables etc. But not that the companies should associate/evaluate/consider bytes downloaded with envi…

I'm going to assume you work in tech and know the issues that come with scale.

Me, individually not doing something is gonna absolutely be drowned out by the scale of many other people not thinking of it or being incentivized against it.

This is a systemic issue. A systemic issue needs a systemic solution, not a blame shift to the individual.

We didn't get rid of lead in gas or asbestos in walls by telling people it was bad for them. We did so by banning it.

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

#415

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

Schiendelman wrote: post #358
ben_w wrote: post #332

> Energy intensity of network data transfer: 0.06 kWh per GB, the mid-band of Pärssinen et al. (2018) "Environmental impact assessment of online advertising", Science of The Total Environment [14]. The paper reports a 0.04-0.10 kWh/GB range depending on the share of fixed-line vs mobile transfer and inclusion of end-user device energy. 0.06 is a defensible mid-point. 2018? An estimate from 8 years ago is going to be…

You think the energy cost to transfer has dropped by 10 X in eight years? Why?

Seems reasonable to believe to me. The cost of a transfer is presumably calculated based on the base power cost of the transfer machinery, since I really doubt that a router or switch's power usage is linear with the amount of data it's transferring. The amount that an industrial router or switch (which is what 80-90% of the hops between you and Google are) has to have increased its bandwidth by around 10x over that time, and I doubt they have 10x'd their energy usage.

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

#416

Post by etothet »

yieldcrv wrote: post #405
etothet wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is, however, precedent for software alerting/asking the user to install “extras” or utility packs and showing the disk size that content will take up and even allowing the user to choose a location to store such things. Creative software does this all the time. There’s nothing stopping Google Chrome from doing something similar except, I suspect, Google knows or feels it will result in many fewer installs of it…

[flagged]

Rage bait? It's a fact about how some software handles downloading extra content. This issue and how ads on the web are served are two separate issues.

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

#417

Post by red-iron-pine »

heavyset_go wrote: post #83
CalRobert wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea but when I mention Firefox my colleagues under 35 or so literally think I'm joking.

They've been consuming 15+ years of anti-Mozilla rants anytime it or Firefox are mentioned online. It's how you get things like "Browser monocultures are an issue, so don't use Chrome (Blink), use Brave (Chromium (Blink)) instead!" said in earnest.

its almost like Google, a marketing company with a serious requirement for data mining, could be talking shit about Mozilla...

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

#418

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

toyg wrote: post #234

How hard would have been to add a simple message, warning people about it and offering to opt out? Most would have clicked OK without reading anyway, and Google could pretend they give a shit about users. Unless they expected blowback, and that kind of message is the "compromise" they want to eventually land on.

Presumably they think the fraction of their userbase who cares about this would be too small to justify the expense of adding a warning message. The mere existence of a warning message implies that there is something to be worried or concerned, about, a position they probably do not endorse or accept.

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

#419

Post by cowboylowrez »

chrisjj wrote: post #386
doginasuit wrote: post #278

"Silently installs" is misleading. They are including a file in the package which is presumably related to the functionality of the software. I don't use chrome for a long list of reasons but it is not standard or expected to get consent for that.

> "Silently installs" is misleading. They are including a file in the package which is presumably related to the functionality of the software. Related... to the functionality of feeding the same profit and loss account, right?

"functionality of the software" has already been mentioned haha
Post reply on HN