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

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

#581

Post by oaiey »

Schiendelman wrote: post #360
x3ro wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome is used by about 3.8 billion people [1]. So, if this is rolled out to every chrome user over the next year or two, this would generate about 15 Exabytes of traffic. It's difficult to find accurate, useful numbers on this, but lets assume 29 grams of CO2e per GB, this would be about 450k tons of CO2e. This in turn, equates to average household CO2 expenditure of almost 300k households. So make your own judgemen…

This is about the same as each of those people streaming a movie to their TV. There's no there there.

But that is a choice of an individual. Not a central place rolling it out.

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

#582

Post by TulliusCicero »

croes wrote: post #568
crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

A spellchecker is a standard function of a text program. Since when is an AI part of the browser? On top it’s another abuse of their market domination. What if users prefer other models?

By that reasoning, any novel/cutting-edge addition to a browser or other software is wrong? Every standard was new at some point.

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

#583

Post by luke727 »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

Where does this line of thinking end? What couldn't be construed as part of the software?

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

#584

Post by hparadiz »

nvr219 wrote: post #571
wahnfrieden wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing that this is anti-AI activism

We should be actively anti-AI being part of a web browser just like that though.

Please stop assuming everyone thinks like you. If I can replace even something like translate with a local model that's just a single thing, off the top of my head, that could potentially benefit. I see no reason why these experiments should not be taking place.

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

#585

Post by jchw »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

It's additional software that many users didn't ask for, don't want and will not be aware of. Reminds me a bit of back when installing software was a minefield due to all of the integrated "promotions" for things like toolbars, only now they've vertically integrated the unwanted software, cutting out the middleman.

Honestly, for most features you could justifiably say its fine. I mean honestly, how large is an English dictionary? 100 KiB? That is a far cry from 4 GiB. Just taking up 4 GiB of disk space without even asking is indeed a shit move no matter how you shake it. If Microsoft Word updated and suddenly took up 4 GiB more for something like a dictionary, it might not cause as much uproar as if it were something that many people are tired of hearing about and not interested in, but I'm not sure you would find a single soul who would find that acceptable, more just tolerated, probably partly because a lot of people simply wouldn't know better.

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

#586

Post by soupspaces »

crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

[dead]

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

#588

Post by CamperBob2 »

luke727 wrote: post #583
crazygringo wrote: post #560

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Microsoft Word installed an English language spellcheck dictionary without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it. Now we can argue whether or not it's an appropriate amount of disk space or bandwidth to use, but that's just a reasonable practic…

Where does this line of thinking end? What couldn't be construed as part of the software?

It ends at the usual place, the shrink-wrap agreement. What did the license agreement say?

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

#589

Post by olyjohn »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #588
luke727 wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does this line of thinking end? What couldn't be construed as part of the software?

It ends at the usual place, the shrink-wrap agreement. What did the license agreement say?

Nobody knows because its unreasonable to expect people to read them.

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

#590

Post by rightbyte »

kingstnap wrote: post #438
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…

0.04 to 0.1 kWh/GB is insane even for 2018 lol. I have gigabit internet (125 MB/s). This would imply when I'm downloading something I'm using 18 to 45 kW of electricity. Completely bonkers.

I'd guess there is some offset power needed for keeping a "line" open. Like, 200 kB/s is not twice the power of 100?
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