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.
Thanks for the constructive comment. I am suspicious that it’s only a temporary stopgap and the feature will keep being pushed on users with increasing difficulty of opting out. For me, this is the time to move on from Chrome like it was time to move on from Windows 11 about a year ago. I am only using it out of some friction of setting up addons on a different browser, but at some point cutting the heads of the AI bloat hydra becomes the bigger hassle.
Thanks for the constructive comment. I am suspicious that it’s only a temporary stopgap and the feature will keep being pushed on users with increasing difficulty of opting out. For me, this is the time to move on from Chrome like it was time to move on from Windows 11 about a year ago. I am only using it out of some friction of setting up addons on a different browser, but at some point cutting the heads of the AI bloat hydra becomes the bigger hassle.