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.
The Gemini on my device just became 10x smarter. Google Assistant didn’t know ‘what was the temperature a year ago’. and Gemini has no problem with it.
I’m not sure if Gemini is that much better or they slowly degraded Assistant. I distinctly remember being able to ask certain things of Assistant and a year ago it stopped working. Assistant was still there but many requests no longer worked.
Android Auto was recently upgraded to Gemini. On a drive today, I asked Gemini to explain the privacy implications of bill C-22 (Canada), and it gave me very detailed clear explanation of the pros and cons of the bill, asked if I was a company or person and then gave me highlights relative to who I was. Pretty impressive actually.
Assistant was made 100x stupider over the course of the years. I clearly remember in 2020 asking basic questions like “where’s Lima” and it replied “Peru”, while since 2023 it replied “ok, starting navigation to Lima, Peru, estimated time 2 days and 10 hours”.
Around 2023 also they made the voice assistant completely useless by changing the responses from “for this answer open the link in your notification bar on the phone” to “sorry, I didn’t understand”, which was pissing me off too much. I completely stopped to use it as 9 questions out of 10 would be “sorry I didn’t understand” instead of “I understood but I’m not programmed to give a voice answer, use your phone”.
Navigation by voice was a complete disaster.
“Navigate to <CONTACT NAME>” - “Ok navigating to <a random business 1000 km away with a name slightly similar to what I said>”
Or, it dropped the road name: you asked to go to “street name, city” and it placed the destination on the geographic center of that city
Also the navigation instructions would have maximum priority and would play even when listening to a command.
“Send a message: I’m going to be late <assistant overlaps my speech>” - “Sending: I’m going to be late on the next exit take the right lane then after 600 meters turn left. Ready to send it?”
The Gemini on my device just became 10x smarter. Google Assistant didn’t know ‘what was the temperature a year ago’. and Gemini has no problem with it.
I’m not sure if Gemini is that much better or they slowly degraded Assistant. I distinctly remember being able to ask certain things of Assistant and a year ago it stopped working. Assistant was still there but many requests no longer worked.
Android Auto was recently upgraded to Gemini. On a drive today, I asked Gemini to explain the privacy implications of bill C-22 (Canada), and it gave me very detailed clear explanation of the pros and cons of the bill, asked if I was a company or person and then gave me highlights relative to who I was. Pretty impressive actually.
Assistant was made 100x stupider over the course of the years. I clearly remember in 2020 asking basic questions like “where’s Lima” and it replied “Peru”, while since 2023 it replied “ok, starting navigation to Lima, Peru, estimated time 2 days and 10 hours”.
Around 2023 also they made the voice assistant completely useless by changing the responses from “for this answer open the link in your notification bar on the phone” to “sorry, I didn’t understand”, which was pissing me off too much. I completely stopped to use it as 9 questions out of 10 would be “sorry I didn’t understand” instead of “I understood but I’m not programmed to give a voice answer, use your phone”.
Navigation by voice was a complete disaster.
“Navigate to <CONTACT NAME>” - “Ok navigating to <a random business 1000 km away with a name slightly similar to what I said>”
Or, it dropped the road name: you asked to go to “street name, city” and it placed the destination on the geographic center of that city
Also the navigation instructions would have maximum priority and would play even when listening to a command.
“Send a message: I’m going to be late <assistant overlaps my speech>” - “Sending: I’m going to be late on the next exit take the right lane then after 600 meters turn left. Ready to send it?”
“Call Anna” - “OK, I call Daniel”