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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

#701

Post by Arelius »

xp84 wrote: post #670
ethagnawl wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is a far cry from 4 GiB Equating a 4GB file installed without explicit consent to the installation of a language dictionary is comical. That's like saying an unwanted political mailer left in your mailbox is the equivalent of a pallette of hammers left in your driveway.

It sounds like you have a specific number of GB in mind that an app can take up, below which it's totally their business, and above which they need to plead their case, disclose the purpose, and allow me to choose. What's that number? How did you arrive at it and why? My Chrome binaries are about 700MB on Mac and 500MB on Windows. Is this below or your line, or are they actually in trouble as soon as they're extracte…

> My Chrome binaries are about 700MB on Mac and 500MB on Windows

That's kind-of the point though right? An application that has been say It'd be similarly unreasonable for a video game that once took 50 GB, to suddenly decide to take 400 GB.

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

#702

Post by wtallis »

rightbyte wrote: post #590
kingstnap wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

When looking at the power consumption across the whole network path and not just a single link, most of the power draw is probably baseline static power costs of keeping all the routers and switches running. Which means that judging the impact of a download in terms of Watts per MB/s is a pretty bad way of analyzing this.

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

#703

Post by Morromist »

xp84 wrote: post #670
ethagnawl wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is a far cry from 4 GiB Equating a 4GB file installed without explicit consent to the installation of a language dictionary is comical. That's like saying an unwanted political mailer left in your mailbox is the equivalent of a pallette of hammers left in your driveway.

It sounds like you have a specific number of GB in mind that an app can take up, below which it's totally their business, and above which they need to plead their case, disclose the purpose, and allow me to choose. What's that number? How did you arrive at it and why? My Chrome binaries are about 700MB on Mac and 500MB on Windows. Is this below or your line, or are they actually in trouble as soon as they're extracte…

People don't typically have specific numbers already set aside whenever they discuss what is too much. The example given was people can handle a political flyer in the mailbox but not a pallet of hammers delivered in their driveway. Do you have specific amounts (probably will need to be a weight limit and a volume limit) already figured out when you think of how much junk someone can mail to you reasonably? Or how much HD space a browser is allowed to install before it gets to be not-their-buisness?

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

#704

Post by pier25 »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #566
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…

You're missing that this is anti-AI activism

It's not about AI. I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't be ok with eg a calculator app shipping a 4GB word processor.

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

#705

Post by stevenally »

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…

They are abusing our trust. That's the issue.

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

#706

Post by nvr219 »

hparadiz wrote: post #584
nvr219 wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am not assuming everyone thinks like me, I’m advocating for my position.

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

#707

Post by bigbadfeline »

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.

You would be right if there's a popup box with two buttons appearing before installing the model and before every time it's used by some site.

Button 1: "Stop the AI now to save X GB of RAM".

Button 2: "Erase all browser AI to save X GB of RAM and Y GB of disk"

This isn't asking for consent, it's simply informing the user about what oversized resources are optional and providing an honest way to save them.

The only alternative to that is formal consent.

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

#708

Post by foxes »

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…

Disagree

It is consent - and its a pattern ubiquitous in tech.

Idk a random model being part of the software is not a given as much as things are trying to be pushed.

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

#710

Post by yallpendantools »

knollimar wrote: post #669
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…

Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Java installed an ask.com toolbar without your consent. It's just part of the software. You consented to installing the software and having it autoupdate. That covers it.

wellackshually the bloatware explicitly asked for consent. There was a checkbox at the end of the EULA asking you "I also don't agree to not install the ask.com toolbar. You wouldn't do that, would you?". There is a state of that checkbox which would not install the toolbar, because, as you know, it's not part of the software I'm trying to install. That state, however, is left as an exercise for the decompiler. :)

Though I kinda agree that framing it as "consent" feels a bit off even if I myself would say no if only Chrome had the courtesy to ask. What icks me more is a 4GB[1] blob that has no relevance to the primary business of being a web browser; this is basically the IE anti-trust issue all over again. And it's an experimental feature! Under saner policies this thing would be a plugin from "Google Chrome Labs".

[1] I found weights.bin in Ubuntu 22.04 Chrome v147.0.7727.137 but it's "only" 2.7GB. Still, my ick stands.

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