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

Post by wtallis » Tue, May 05, 2026, 8:36 PM UTC

syndeo wrote: post #595

oaiey wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is changing the product significantly. I wanted/consented to a browser. Nothing more. Agreeable, nothing new with the browser vendor pushing plugins down our throat which are not browser core features, nevertheless not right.

It’s actually really useful for web devs to have access to a local model. Whether or not browsers should bundle their own rather than using the system-provided model(s) is up for debate, however. For the time being, though, Google does have some of the better small ones. Furthermore, users aren’t going to want to have to wait for an extra thing to download before their web apps can use AI. That’s the thing… Without c…

Post by kaptainscarlet » Tue, May 05, 2026, 8:37 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #585

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 Englis…

Post by J-Kuhn » Tue, May 05, 2026, 8:41 PM UTC

ezfe wrote: post #596

ddtaylor wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it falls more into the category of needing consent like a crypto miner would. If I use a piece of software to do X and it begins using more resources to do Y that can be a serious issue and is at the heart of this discussion.

A crypto miner needs consent because it burns your battery and CPU power with no benefit to you. This AI model would only be used when you invoke it so the only problem is disk space, which the comment you're replying to acknowledges as a point of issue.

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, May 05, 2026, 8:42 PM UTC

kaptainscarlet wrote: post #603

jchw wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Englis…

An AI is not additional software. Infact, a model is not software.

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P » Tue, May 05, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

ezfe wrote: post #596

ddtaylor wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it falls more into the category of needing consent like a crypto miner would. If I use a piece of software to do X and it begins using more resources to do Y that can be a serious issue and is at the heart of this discussion.

A crypto miner needs consent because it burns your battery and CPU power with no benefit to you. This AI model would only be used when you invoke it so the only problem is disk space, which the comment you're replying to acknowledges as a point of issue.