Google Chrome is reportedly auto-installing a massive 4GB AI model without your consent : technology

[-] Zier@fedia.io 61 points 2 months ago

People are shocked when the bad boyfriend (google) that people warned them about, do highly unethical things. That boyfriend only exists to use & abuse you, it has no other purpose anymore.

[-] outandinburger@ttrpg.network 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

[removed by mod]

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago

Let me guess, you run Linux?

[-] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 2 months ago

I use Arch btw

[-] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

My arch system runs an arch VM.

[-] irate944@piefed.social 5 points 2 months ago

I use arch btw

[-] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Bloatware, in my Google Chrome!?

[-] umbraroze@piefed.social 17 points 2 months ago

Well I'm glad Google decided to bite the bullet and face the immense, Biblical backlash. So that Mozilla Corporation has a few new thoughts to ponder on.

[-] Dojan@pawb.social 5 points 2 months ago

Their idiot CEO will move forward with forcing AI onto people too. CEOs don’t learn.

[-] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago

"weights" is damn right lol

[-] damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

What if you keep the file around but write to it and zero size it? Does chrome still download the file again?

[-] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Eventually it'll update.

[-] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

I don't use chrome on my personal computer.

[-] 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@piefed.zip 3 points 2 months ago

I wonder if they do it on phones as well. Not everyone has a 256GB+ device, and 4GB would be a significant chunk on even that.

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

What little I read about this it seems to only be on desktop. For now.

Some suit in the C Suite is having a wet dream though imagining the not so far off future where they can run shit like this on your phone.

[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

It lets them artificially inflate user counts

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

On android phones I believe this is called Gemini Nano which is part of the Gemini app for Android and the android AIcore app. The AI core app supposedly eats up like 4-12GB of storage. I believe it's a system app that you can't uninstall.

Might be worth a look at your phone apps especially if you have a pixel phone.

[-] LifeLikeLady@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Not on my machine lol.

[+] plz1@sh.itjust.works -7 points 2 months ago

It's roughly twice the size of the base app, if it's the same as Edge, which on my machine is 1.82GB. It's shady as hell, but "massive" is doing a lot of lifting in this headline.

[-] theneverfox@pawb.social 16 points 2 months ago

That is absolutely massive for a browser. Like multiple orders of magnitude too big. Like what are we even doing

And I don't care if everyone is doing it, it's still too big!

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 2 months ago

Even 1 gig is pretty fucking huge for a web browser. 🤨

[+] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com -9 points 2 months ago

What's wrong with this? Isn't it preferable to run the LLM locally for privacy reasons? Plus googles open weight models are pretty good for what they are.

[-] garretble@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

They don’t tell you they are doing it, for one.

Even though this 4GB is local, the “omnibox” at the top that also uses Gemini shit doesn’t use this 4GB and still goes to the web to determine the slop it wants to provide.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It downloads the 4GB local model and then doesn't use it. Instead chrome LLM usage is routed through their online LLM service instead.

Chrome’s most recent release, version 147, now includes an AI Mode pill in the omnibox, however, this routes queries to cloud-based AI servers. The local model is not used by that AI, instead it powers features like “Help me write”.

[-] muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 0 points 2 months ago

Some features being local is a win as far as I'm concerned. And its google what do people expect just seems like a very weird thing to get upset at google for.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You asked a question. I answered the question. I don't know what people expect these days but I expect programs to download what I tell them to when I tell them to and not suddenly decide to download things I don't tell them to. Back in the day we called programs that download things without the users consent viruses.

Especially if it redownloads and reinstalls itself after the user removes it. Doesn't matter what company it comes from that's not how things are supposed to work (MS does this same type of crap with copilot and that's also insane).

[+] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de -29 points 2 months ago

But...
Isn't that a good thing?
I mean, running an LLM locally is much more private than running it somewhere in the cloud at a provider that gets your raw data, isn't it?
All your data stays on your device, while making it much, much harder for Google to argument why it should be uploaded to their data centers.

[-] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 62 points 2 months ago

All your data stays on your device

You don't seriously believe that, do you? They just use your device's memory and CPU, thus your electricity to shovel through your data and then sending all valuable data to their servers.

[-] irate944@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

For clarity sake, that’s not what’s happening here. (Don’t misunderstand this comment as defending google, I could write a book about how much they suck)

The model downloaded is a LLM called Gemini Nano, and it’s used for things like “help me write”, checking if an incoming message is scam, summaries, etc.

Don’t worry about it itself being a spyware. It’s not; but for argument sake, if we were to assume that it was: they already know a lot about you through their usual apps and services, and get a lot more info out of you through them. This LLM would hardly move that needle.

The actual issue is that they download it for everyone, even if their devices don’t match the minimum requirements. And without consent. And to enable it, you need to go through several menus, as the default behaviour is to use the cloud (this could change eventually, my understanding is that in this update they’re just laying the foundation)

But, it’s Google that we’re talking about. Last year they were sentenced to pay a fine for spying on users despite them having their tracking settings off. And it wasn’t the first time iirc. This kind of behaviour is par for the course with them

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago

It’s already been pointed out in multiple threads that the terms of service specify that even if it uses the on board model it still sends your queries to Google.

[-] irate944@piefed.social -2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's what I said. Right now it's defaulting to the cloud

[-] brsrklf@jlai.lu 35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's not a good thing if you don't want a freaking LLM to begin with. Hidden 4GB download for a feature I can't give a single fuck about is ridiculous.

[-] fpslem@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

If the reporting is accurate, your data is still sent to Google's servers for processing. This doesn't appear to improve privacy, it's more like an extension of the user surveillance business model that Google has pursued in the past decade.

[-] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

If someone chooses to do that then yes its a better option, but 4GB of LLM shouldn't just be shipped in a browser.

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm reminded of when they pinky swore that they weren't dissecting your data in incognito tabs.

They lied. And nothing ever really happened to them for it. Proof is that they still have the audacity to do anti consumer shit like this and not even think twice.

Also if I was someone who wanted to run an LLM locally there are many options other than whatever crap google is putting out. You can't trust them at all with even a morsel of your data.

[-] scytale@piefed.zip 11 points 2 months ago

If they are doing this without user knowledge, I wouldn’t trust that everything the LLM ingests stays local either, until proven otherwise. Also, not everyone wants to have a local LLM running on their browser eating up 4GB of space.

[-] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 months ago

If I choose to install and use an LLM on my device, sure. That doesn't mean Google should take it upon themselves to ship one baked into the browser, with no way to opt out or remove it without it being re-downloaded.

Assuming Google will respect privacy is certainly a take.

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 2 months ago

The model could interact with everything on the PC without overhead on connection or servers, or user consent and then report back compressed reports. And who knows, maybe even training the model in a distributed way with users interactions with the PC.

[-] Darnton@piefed.zip 6 points 2 months ago

Sure, but privacy isn't the only issue. It still consumes a ton of energy all for basically nothing. So you are paying that electric bill, as well as as the wear and tear on your GPU.

[-] lath@piefed.social 4 points 2 months ago

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