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.
What devices include Chrome as standard? I don’t recall ever seeing a desktop or laptop already have it installed. (The article doesn’t claim this is happening on Android.)
I thought my win 11 came bundled with it, although I could be wrong.
As far as difficulty to uninstall and remove thats an android situation, but I feel like that could be the next OS to get this treatment (speculation).
What devices include Chrome as standard? I don’t recall ever seeing a desktop or laptop already have it installed. (The article doesn’t claim this is happening on Android.)
I thought my win 11 came bundled with it, although I could be wrong.
As far as difficulty to uninstall and remove thats an android situation, but I feel like that could be the next OS to get this treatment (speculation).
Chrome is often baked into pre-built computer images these days.
Every mainline android ROM includes chrome as default.