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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

#791

Post by tqi »

gremlinunderway wrote: post #769
xp84 wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What a completely asinine post. I'm sick of seemingly smart people in the technical world think they are being so clever by trying to literally rehash the continuum fallacy. You hear this literally everytime anyone even so much as suggests a standard, norm or god forbid a regulation. It seems especially common among libertarian types who think governance of any kind of simply impossible because of it. Just because th…

Is your objection just to the bloat, or also to what the bloat is for?

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

#792

Post by itemize123 »

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 are being very disingenuous. there are certain expectations from a software vendor. taking things into extreme, if something install malware as an update on your computer, is it not a silly claim that it is free for vendor to do so?

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

#793

Post by itemize123 »

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?

agreements don't always hold up to legal scrutiny. In cases where it is unreasonable, it won't be able to stand up in court. And in any case, this is not a legal matter but a user experience / public opinion one

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

#794

Post by [deleted] »

ambrozk wrote: post #753
Razengan wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's additional software that many users didn't ask for, don't want and will not be aware of > You just described 95% of the parts of all software, especially in this era. And think of the Web - how many gigabytes of terrible adtech and tracking code does the average user download in a month of web browsing without an adblocker? Remember, each one probably packages in a couple hundred NPM dependencies into its bund…

It's not "becoming the norm." It's been the norm for decades. And yes, you should not be mad about the norm.

[deleted]

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

#795

Post by toofy »

andrewmutz wrote: post #754
Razengan wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's additional software that many users didn't ask for, don't want and will not be aware of > You just described 95% of the parts of all software, especially in this era. And think of the Web - how many gigabytes of terrible adtech and tracking code does the average user download in a month of web browsing without an adblocker? Remember, each one probably packages in a couple hundred NPM dependencies into its bund…

The story is only trending because it’s an AI model and the internet is anti-ai right now. It’s a double standard. It’s like how people are outraged that electricity is being used in data centers to power AI models. When you do the math, the power consumption is far, far less than all the other things you do all day without thinking twice. But again, anti-AI double standard

if someone doesn’t want ai on their devices, you think it’s a double standard that they’re annoyed when it’s installed anyway?

i’m not anti-ai by any stretch, but to pretend like their personal choices don’t matter is a bit too dismissive. it’s their choice, we probably shouldn’t imply other people having their own personal taste is hysterical or whatever it is you’re dancing around.

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

#796

Post by gessha »

wavemode wrote: post #777
gessha wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News from the year 2030: Google takes your credit card info, sells it on the black market for pennies and kicks you in the groin. Framing this as needing "consent" is deeply misguided. It's as silly as claiming that Google stole your credit card info 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…

You're arguing in bad faith.

It’s not in bad faith, it’s reductio as absurdum.

Installation is not consent.

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

#797

Post by farfatched »

pjc50 wrote: post #209
farfatched wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's emissions they worry about, then it's anything emitting. Are they against washing machines too? Or are they just grandfathered in?

This is literally why the EU mandates appliance energy efficiency. It's never a binary thing. "Is using energy good or bad?" is a stupid question which can only provide stupid answers. It has to be placed in the context of whether it's proportionate to benefit. Things which burn a lot of energy for little benefit - and in the case of AI, often negative benefit - end up more towards the "bad".

That's a fair point.

I hadn't considered that societies rightfully impose standards on these things.

I consider it too early to judge the cost-benefit, but it's fair that others might have already evaluated that. I rescind my comment.

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

#798

Post by lynx97 »

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…

I disagree. Its a browser, damnit. Framing it as non-consentual AI is the right way. BTW, how much does Google pay you for this comment?

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

#799

Post by blackoil »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #782
marcosdumay wrote: post #727

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shipping the model with the browser is exactly the opposite of what you are claiming. The alternative is sending the data to Google.

Back to the assumptions. If the onboard LLM means no data sending and you get your own little service wholly subservient to you like a good little program. That's nice! If the onboard LLM means better data filtering, possibly even exploration of the local system, to send information to Google while lessening their datacentre bills running LLM services. That seems a little underhanded to just bake into things without…

Why assume? it should be observable. You can check the code and data traffic to see how it is used.
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