Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise tooling, and an automatic re-download every time the user deletes it. The pattern is identical to the Anthropic Claude Desktop case I wrote about last month, but the scale is between two and three orders of magnitude larger. This article does the legal analysis and, for the first time, the environmental analysis. The numbers are not small.
I mean, that kind of thing is expected with Google products. The depressing thing is that no one who is paying attention will be surprised when Firefox announces they are going to do something similar.
I mean, that kind of thing is expected with Google products. The depressing thing is that no one who is paying attention will be surprised when Firefox announces they are going to do something similar.