Sure, local models good and yes, there's no way we can trust Google.
replyWe can be positive the entire motivation of Chrome is user behavior surveillance. There's not a nano-chance in all the multiverses that Chrome model is doing anything privately. They've gone to extraordinary length to accomplish this. It's not for free.
It is entirely about user surveillance as well as pushing their product on to their users because they have the install base. Google Chrome has become Microsoft IE6 in hostile user behavior.
replyYou either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.
replyWhat did we expect when they dropped "don't be evil" from their company values?
A claim about as useful then as it is now. They never wanted to be anything but, once Sergei left. The Schmidt era had them publicly declare one thing while doing something else entirely behind the curtain.
replyI don't trust them either, but the same Google makes Gemma 4 available to run as locally and privately as you want, and those models are pretty amazing for their size.
replyHalf of the reason to use local AI is to circumvent the censorship that Google, OpenAI and so on have. I don't want this Google crap on my computer.
replyWhich is why I uninstalled Chrome a (short...) while ago and my life went on unbothered.
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