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Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent.
(www.thatprivacyguy.com)
this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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The point is that servers don't belch black smoke when they send you one file. This model is the size of a four-hour Youtube video. How many people watch how many hours of video, every single day? We only see this hand-wringing minutia over internet use when talking about neural networks, and it's getting weird.
Much weirder when people try to shift blame off corporations pushing stuff on people without their consent, and on people minding their own business.
Weren't you just telling me that data centers would use energy regardless anyway? I can't keep track of these talking points, except it seems like they're all pro AI.
The root comment opens with 'don't use Chrome.' This tangent is about specific overblown fixation on power use... for downloads.
I am telling you to apply your own criticism of bandwidth to anything else Google does. Four gigs to every desktop Chrome user is still a drop in the bucket compared to a streaming service. If the average Chrome user has watched two movies online, they've done just as much environmental damage. Which is to say: not much.