Post #2211383

2026-05-06 20:27 UTC

You know that 4GB AI model that Google Chrome silently installs on your machine? Keep in mind that the Chrome team decided to do that because *they thought it was a good idea*. If user outrage is sufficient to cause that decision to be rolled back, they&#39;ll still push the same AI features, only hosted remotely instead of locally. If you&#39;re going to trust software from a development team somewhere, you are making a decision to trust their processes and to accept their pressures. Choose wisely.

Replies (8)

@packetcat@tenforward.social 2026-05-06 20:28

@gnomon@mastodon.social wtf, this is the first I'm hearing about this, do you have a news article or other link about this?

Open ##2383481
@owen@mastodon.transneptune.net 2026-05-06 20:35

@gnomon@mastodon.social I'm straight-up assuming - as I have no information one way or the other - that that blob dump was the other half of the prompting API spec Google is trying to ram through: https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1213#issuecomment-4347988313

Open ##2383485
@dalias@hachyderm.io 2026-05-06 20:42

@gnomon@mastodon.social I don't trust them either way. I just want the visible badness of that decision ("we reduced your phone's storage capacity by 10% because we want to shove AI in your face") to wake more people up to the fact that they should not trust Chrome/Google.

Open ##2383488
@riotnrrd@mastodon.social 2026-05-07 17:45

@gnomon@mastodon.social This would be why I only use Chrome for the odd service that is still Chrome-only, like multimedia stuff. Maybe this is what will push me to explore Chromium alternatives to fill that role.

Open ##2383491
@mrencyclopedia@retro.pizza 2026-05-08 01:55

@gnomon@mastodon.social Alternatively, we can reject both locally hosted and remotely hosted features. If I ever want any of the crap they're pushing I know who to ask.

Open ##2383494
@tasket@infosec.exchange 2026-05-08 02:16

@gnomon@mastodon.social "they'll still push the same AI features, only hosted remotely instead of locally." Still a black box that the user has no control over. If the local version enhances privacy by not transmitting personal info, it is only private until Google decides to transmit the info anyway.

Open ##2383496
@divVerent@misskey.de 2026-05-08 03:55

@gnomon@mastodon.social Is this Ad Topics or something else? The former is at least a strict improvement vs 3P cookies - nevertheless I would prefer no tracking. Surprises me though that that feature needs a 4GB AI model. Insane. To me that feature sounded like "a few bloom filter lists of domain names"... or "meta tags".

Open ##2383497
@Petr90@mamutovo.cz 2026-05-08 04:12

@gnomon@mastodon.social 👍

Open ##2383498