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.
yeah actually I was weary about ai energy usage early on but ultimately determined it was really not all that much when comparing apples to apples. the real problem is people just going crazy doing things over and over that they otherwise would not be doing otherwise. Like generating images. but like using it as web search its more than one search of energy but you get more than one search worth of data. Also someone who uses their free time to talk with it as a buddy (I don’t get the appeal personally) instead of streaming video might very well use less energy.
yeah actually I was weary about ai energy usage early on but ultimately determined it was really not all that much when comparing apples to apples. the real problem is people just going crazy doing things over and over that they otherwise would not be doing otherwise. Like generating images. but like using it as web search its more than one search of energy but you get more than one search worth of data. Also someone who uses their free time to talk with it as a buddy (I don’t get the appeal personally) instead of streaming video might very well use less energy.