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Comment on My new laptop chip has an 'AI' processor in it, and it's a complete waste of space

Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all quietly putting these and the software infrastructure in place in their operating systems to do on device classification of content: Windows Recall, Google Secure Core, and Apple Intelligence. These services are obsequiously marketed as being for your benefit, while are all privacy and surveillance nightmares. When the security breaking features of these systems are mentioned, each company touts some convoluted workaround to justify the tech.

The real reason is to watch everything you do in your device, use the tensor hardware you may or may not know that you purchased to analyze the data locally, then export and sell that “anonymized” information to advertisers and the government. All while cryptographically tying the data to your device and the device to you for “security”. This enables mass surveillance, digital rights management, and target advertised previously unseen.

Each of these providers already scans everything you upload to their services:

Microsoft has been caught using your stored passwords to decrypt uploaded archives.

Apple developed client side scanning for CSAM before backlash shut it down, and they already locally scan your photos with a machine learning classification algorithm whether you like it or not. You can’t turn it off.

Google recently implemented local content scanning with SecureCore to protect you from unwanted content.

I would rather saw off my own nuts with a rusty spork before willfully purchasing a device with one of these NPUs on-device. I fear that in the next 5-10 years, you won’t be able to avoid them.

** Do you trust the rising fascist regimes and their tech lackeys in America and the UK to use this information morally and responsibly?**

Do you really believe that these features that no one asked for are and that you cannot disable are for your benefit?

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sturger@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
They’re not selling chips. They’re selling stock.

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Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all quietly integrating NPUs into their devices, and implementing the software infrastructure in their operating systems to do on-device classification of content:

Too late. Apple has had an NPU in their phones since 2017. It’s been standard on flagship android devices since 2020 with various amd and intel processors starting around the same time.

I’m not here to defend LLMs or AI feature but for a comment to start with such a misinformed assessment of the state of reality reminds me of someone spouting off about chemtrails and weather machines.

At least NPUs actually exist.

If someone wants to avoid this stuff they are going to need to pick an open source platform that does not use these processor features.

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- wuffah@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  You’re right, it appears that NPU hardware was introduced in the iPhone 8, in 2017, and I say this typing away from an Apple device. Sounds like I’ll be busy this weekend with that rusty spork.
  
  However, it’s the recent generation of NPUs that provide the processing power needed to run the expanded scanning services implemented by these OS’s. That’s why Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15, and Microsoft is hawking Recall laptops.
  
  While I admit the pins-and-string-on-a-corkboard tone, I don’t think we actually disagree on anything here. Eventually, an open source platform will become the only way to avoid this kind of hardware enabled surveillance.
  
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