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.
AI runs in the cloud because it needs a powerful server to run the biggest (i.e. “smartest”) models.
The cloud servers are doing nothing special that another powerful enough computer could do, just a huge amount of data processing.
You can run an ai chat on a steam deck or directly on a phone, if it’s not too demanding (“smarter” models are bigger data files, so won’t fit in the memory of a small device).
Today, for instance, I had a phone call from “Spectrum Internet support” and part-way through the call my phone blared an alarm and said “possible scam” on screen.
The phone itself interpreted the conversation as sus.
AI runs in the cloud because it needs a powerful server to run the biggest (i.e. “smartest”) models.
The cloud servers are doing nothing special that another powerful enough computer could do, just a huge amount of data processing.
You can run an ai chat on a steam deck or directly on a phone, if it’s not too demanding (“smarter” models are bigger data files, so won’t fit in the memory of a small device).
Today, for instance, I had a phone call from “Spectrum Internet support” and part-way through the call my phone blared an alarm and said “possible scam” on screen.
The phone itself interpreted the conversation as sus.
https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/15654065?hl=en