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

Re:Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your d... by laserbeam on Tuesday May 05, 2026 @11:55PM (#48031978)

That's like saying users have no right to push against certain features. It's like saying Windows Recall was always ok and there was never any reason to demand it not be installed. The only difference is one can choose to use a different browser easier than they can choose a different OS.

You're right in the sense that practicality and consent are orthogonal issues. There are probably stronger arguments to complain about a feature than the disk use.

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Re:Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your d... by account42 on Wednesday May 06, 2026 @04:37AM (#48033772)

> The only difference is one can choose to use a different browser easier than they can choose a different OS.

I'm not even sure that is actually true for most people. If you mainly work in the browser, which many do, then you can change the OS under it without impacting the user too much but change the browser and there will need to be much more to adapt/relearn.

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Re:Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your d... by Zetaphor on Thursday May 07, 2026 @08:19AM (#48048478)

Changing the browser is an order of magnitude less friction than changing browsers. The UX in every browser is essentially the same, that's not the case between Windows, Mac, and the various DE's on Linux

[ Parent | on HN ]