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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

#541

Post by hluska »

safety1st wrote: post #504
2ndorderthought wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a very good small model to be honest. That said, you might be surprised to learn that some of the models from 3b-9b could probably replace 80% of the things nonvibe coders use chatgpt for. Its a good idea to run small models locally if your computer can host them for privacy and cash saving reasons. But how can you trust Google to autoinstall one on your machine in 2026? I just couldn't do it.

> That said, you might be surprised to learn that some of the models from 3b-9b could probably replace 80% of the things nonvibe coders use chatgpt for. Really? I'm a total amateur when it comes to doing anything with local models but I tried a few in this range using ollama at this point, and they didn't seem to know much about anything, and I couldn't figure out how to get them to search the web or run other tools,…

Local models are improving quickly so if you keep an eye open you’ll find something soon enough. But from experience, I’ll warn you that local models can lose the plot very quickly. Their little self arguments when they get stuck usually come down to:

- It failed? This must be a mistake, I’ll try it again. It failed? This must be a mistake, I’ll try it again because then I will complete the task (repeat about every six seconds until you rescue it).

- You know, the best way to deal with a permissions problem is to erase the entire system. That’ll definitely solve those pesky permissions and I’ll complete the task.

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

#542

Post by pier25 »

pu_pe wrote: post #116
wartywhoa23 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should I reminder you what unlimited growth means and how it ends up in biology? Society/technology is no exception.

No need for unlimited growth, just normal sustainable progress like the one that allows you and me to communicate here after centuries of technological progress.

> No need for unlimited growth

Well then at some point you need to stop growing.

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

#543

Post by jm4 »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #397
2ndorderthought wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a very good small model to be honest. That said, you might be surprised to learn that some of the models from 3b-9b could probably replace 80% of the things nonvibe coders use chatgpt for. Its a good idea to run small models locally if your computer can host them for privacy and cash saving reasons. But how can you trust Google to autoinstall one on your machine in 2026? I just couldn't do it.

> But how can you trust Google to autoinstall one on your machine Why are AI models something I'd be uniquely unable to trust Google to install, compared all the other code included in Chrome updates? Is your point just that you shouldn't trust Chrome in general?

Google is probably still sucking up the contents of your LLM requests even with the model running locally.

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

#544

Post by TheRealPomax »

600 comments and yet no one's questioning the math, just running with "4GB" even though the fsevents log literally says that the file is the result of an unpack operation?

The file might be 4GB but the transfer sure as heck wasn't, so what are we even talking about? How much data is actually transferred? Can someone just grab that weights.bin file and zip it up with max compression and report a more realistic number that we can do the math with, if the number is even worth doing the math for?

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

#545

Post by 2ndorderthought »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #397
2ndorderthought wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a very good small model to be honest. That said, you might be surprised to learn that some of the models from 3b-9b could probably replace 80% of the things nonvibe coders use chatgpt for. Its a good idea to run small models locally if your computer can host them for privacy and cash saving reasons. But how can you trust Google to autoinstall one on your machine in 2026? I just couldn't do it.

> But how can you trust Google to autoinstall one on your machine Why are AI models something I'd be uniquely unable to trust Google to install, compared all the other code included in Chrome updates? Is your point just that you shouldn't trust Chrome in general?

Yes I would not trust Google or chrome. They have a history of class action lawsuits for doing shady things to users. Enabling them to condense data on your machine and transmit it however they want, should they choose too is suspect to me.

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

#548

Post by liminis »

sevenzero wrote: post #21
dotcoma wrote: post #10

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

What browsers would you recommend? I use Brave but it's still Chromium under the hood. It's the only one that I never had trouble with adblock though. Also lets me play youtube on mobile when my screen is locked.

Arc is still great on macOS (not so much the Windows build, essentially an abandoned beta) even if it's not getting active development anymore.

I'm defaulting to Firefox ever since I moved my desktop to CachyOS, but I need to either reacquaint myself with its add-on situation after a long arc of using "chrome alternatives", or migrate to something else niche. Vivaldi was what I was sold on before Arc caught my attention through its wonderful UX/UI.

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

#549

Post by mcmcmc »

wolvoleo wrote: post #382
lkramer wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at this point you're barely the product either. You're more a passive platform for them to execute their strategy on.

Totally agreed. I was thinking about how to word it but I was giving up. But I would consider us users to be more like an asset on their balance sheet. Not something they would care about the opinion of.

More like livestock tbh. Only instead of wool or meat or eggs being harvested, it’s mindshare and attention that they depend on

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

#550

Post by tomhow »

elashri wrote: post #299
tomhow wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've banned this account.

Hi Tom, since you are here. It seems that my comment, the GOP is flagged and I think this is a case of flag abuse. Can you help with that?

That was an unsubstantive comment, that started a generic tangent, and veers onto the wrong side of these parts of the guidelines:

Don't be snarky. Converse curiously

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.

I understand you probably didn't know that or may not accept the assessment, and that's fine, but please know that we consider it important that comments should be about the article's primary topic and that they activate curious conversation.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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