[andrewmutz]

The story is only trending because it’s an AI model and the internet is anti-ai right now. It’s a double standard.

It’s like how people are outraged that electricity is being used in data centers to power AI models. When you do the math, the power consumption is far, far less than all the other things you do all day without thinking twice. But again, anti-AI double standard

[RedComet]

On the contrary, you're only defending it because it is AI. If it were some other feature that many didn't want or ask for, you would empathize.

[brookst]

A product like Chrome probably has 10,000-ish features, maybe more.

Is your position really that any feature that “many” users failed to ask for must require additional consent to install?

And where is this registry features that a sufficient number of users asked for to allow it to be installed silently?

[alterom]

>A product like Chrome probably has 10,000-ish features, maybe more.

It doesn't have 10,000-ish features that take 4GB of space.

Chrome doesn't take 40TB on my hard drive.

The machine I'm typing it on has 10GB free right now, and that was after I cleaned it up. I noticed the hard drive filling up when I was doing nothing, but I didn't suspect Chrome of all tihngs.

[brookst]

Ah, so it’s not so much “nobody asked for this”, it is more “this is a pain for my specific and unusual use case”. Also fair, just a different thing.

[alterom]

>“this is a pain for my specific and unusual use case”.

Since when "being tight on storage space" is a "specific and unusual" case?

That's the whole marketing strategy of selling devices with small built-in storage (and no expandable storage, as iPhones do).

In any case, not wanting a ~150MB installation file to silently download and shit a ~4GB file all over your filesystem is not an unusual* case.

As sufficiently many people have pointed out.

[baq]

Not OP but no, I don’t care. Outrage at this is misguided at best.

[kjs3]

Outrage at this is misguided at best.

Because it's AI. Got it.

[baq]

no.

[toofy]

if someone doesn’t want ai on their devices, you think it’s a double standard that they’re annoyed when it’s installed anyway?

i’m not anti-ai by any stretch, but to pretend like their personal choices don’t matter is a bit too dismissive. it’s their choice, we probably shouldn’t imply other people having their own personal taste is hysterical or whatever it is you’re dancing around.

[ButlerianJihad]

There are many technologies that begin in the corporate world on the enterprise level, and/or in research and education fields, and then trickle down to consumers. And basically anytime a tech reaches consumers, it's a fait accompli; it's ingrained in the business world 100%; scientists and defense contractors have blessed it.

The Avalanche Has Already Started. It is Too Late for the Pebbles to Vote. -- Ambassador Kosh Naranek

The funny thing about "AI Data Centers!!1!" is that they're unsurprising to anyone who knows the progression of this. First there were gigantic computers. Then telecom closets and machine rooms. Those machine rooms and closets got big and hungry! But they were hidden inside drab office space and far inside security perimeters and nobody really paid them mind, because it was part of doing business for the businesses.

Then came the cloud mania and corporations began gutting their machine rooms and migrating to the clouds. So if the consumption and demand for resources ramped up, who knows, but it was transferred from a very distributed, scattered model to centralized in a few big datacenters.

And now those datacenters are becoming an end unto themselves and everyone's gotta get one. Yeah, the scale and consumption of computing increases, but this has been evolutionary and it's only alarming because now, you can drive around a big city and pass several obvious data centers (and a few non-obvious ones) on your way. Did people freak out over AT&T constructing central offices? Dunno, those meant a lot of jobs. We all needed to reach out and touch someone.

But kinda wary about that Death Star.

[rob74]

Wow, a Babylon 5 quote, I'm impressed :)

[xxs]

>the internet is anti-ai right now

The 'internet' is not an entity. Outrage and engagement drive ads. Beyond that 'AI' has very little benefit for most people and it's straight loss if you look at consumer electronics (getting price out of PCs) or energy prices.

[salad-tycoon]

I’m actually quite interested in this on device scam detection and might be installing chrome on my aunts computer. She’s an upper 70s millionaire widow who is constantly confused and attacked by a deluge of convincing scam emails.

I had no idea chrome had this feature. Wish Apple had something like this honestly. https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-secu...

[xxs]

>attacked by a deluge of convincing scam emails.

Wouldn't be easier for an email provider to classify the emails already?

Other than that - if the tool provides utility is good. Personally, I'd not touch it - everyone in the family uses firefox everywhere (incl. phones)

[account42]

Oh no, why won't people leave the poor AI companies alone.

[listenallyall]

> the internet is anti-ai right now

Just fyi, this is not a temporary phenomenon, not a phase. People dont like spam, robocalls, persistent advertising, even as we use the tools that enable them. They definitely wont like massive job losses, if that actually comes to fruition. Constant surveillance, "slop" news and entertainment, significantly reduced human contact - not popular. Like most technologies, AI benefits a small group - those who control the means of production - but everyone else loses out.

[2000UltraDeluxe]

Not just the Internet either. People are actively talking about data centres using available electricity, and the constant push from employers of using AI for things it clearly isn't suited for. Not to mention the constant "Let me talk to a real person" requests -- people see AI's everywhere and often have no desire to interact with them.

[Gander5739]

Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis

[goatlover]

It certainly makes me uncomfortable given the current capabilities of AI and what the tech CEOs have said about what they see AI becoming. It's not just like any other feature. Am considering uninstalling and no longer using Chrome on principle now.

[rexpop]

Yes—the threshold of new technology has re-opened the books on settled—or exhausted—arguments.

Every paradigm shift offers the opportunity to relitigate old bargains.

[bfivyvysj]

It's because it's 4gb and Apple still sells devices with 256gb hard drives.

[xp84]

Those disks have been too small to be a reasonable default, and getting even more unreasonable by the day, for a decade, so while I agree that's a great reason to be quite peeved about this move, I'd be mad at Apple even more.

[bfivyvysj]

I know, I just get the feeling this thread is getting too far away from reality - lots of gas lighting about things that don't matter.