Just to be clear from the start, I don’t use Chrome (or any Google products or services) and recommend everyone switch to Firefox/Firefox forks which are more privacy friendly.
I completely agree that it should be opt-in as well.
It’s subjective but I think I would describe it as “sneaky” to add a 4gb AI component to a browser.
Google CONSTANTLY adds and removes default features from Chrome without any user notice (outside of patch notes) and many without the ability to opt out (Manifest v3, for example). Most people simply don’t care to pay attention to the patch notes, which is understandable.
But, this specific AI thing isn’t one of them.
Like you said, this is Google attempting to dominate the AI space my pushing it’s own AI features and integrations.
(There’s also YT advertisements and text ads, which I’ve seen on work PCs but I have them blocked at home so I have no links to examples)
The article, and many other articles sharing the same framing, are simply cashing in on outrage by ragebaiting the anti-AI crowd. Google has been loudly promoting their AI services and integration in all of their products. It is not at all surprising that Chrome is included in that and Google has made every attempt to tell every person on Earth that this is the case.
Just to be clear from the start, I don’t use Chrome (or any Google products or services) and recommend everyone switch to Firefox/Firefox forks which are more privacy friendly.
I completely agree that it should be opt-in as well.
Google CONSTANTLY adds and removes default features from Chrome without any user notice (outside of patch notes) and many without the ability to opt out (Manifest v3, for example). Most people simply don’t care to pay attention to the patch notes, which is understandable.
But, this specific AI thing isn’t one of them.
Like you said, this is Google attempting to dominate the AI space my pushing it’s own AI features and integrations.
This means a lot of self-promotion
They have a blog post:
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-mode-chrome/
An announcement video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b9uHAcHYc
Developer documentation:
https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/built-in
A product page:
https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/
(There’s also YT advertisements and text ads, which I’ve seen on work PCs but I have them blocked at home so I have no links to examples)
The article, and many other articles sharing the same framing, are simply cashing in on outrage by ragebaiting the anti-AI crowd. Google has been loudly promoting their AI services and integration in all of their products. It is not at all surprising that Chrome is included in that and Google has made every attempt to tell every person on Earth that this is the case.