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.
I don’t buy this energy figure at all - where are you getting it from?
120 GWh / 500 million is 240 Wh per person.
The download is 4GB. Downloaded over a 100 megabit connection, it takes about 5 minutes.
240 Wh / 5 minutes is 2.88 kW.
What equipment is consuming an extra 2.88 kW due to me downloading something?
This sounds like one of those pants-on-head “calculations” about how sending an email consumes five billion gigajoules or whatever. They typically add up the energy usage of a data centre and divide by the number of emails going through it. Is that what’s happening here?
I don’t buy this energy figure at all - where are you getting it from?
120 GWh / 500 million is 240 Wh per person.
The download is 4GB. Downloaded over a 100 megabit connection, it takes about 5 minutes.
240 Wh / 5 minutes is 2.88 kW.
What equipment is consuming an extra 2.88 kW due to me downloading something?
This sounds like one of those pants-on-head “calculations” about how sending an email consumes five billion gigajoules or whatever. They typically add up the energy usage of a data centre and divide by the number of emails going through it. Is that what’s happening here?