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Comment by thorum

16 hours ago

You’re probably right in a literal technical sense, but a very large number of people (maybe most?) would choose “no” if properly informed and asked for consent, and lots of people are morally opposed even in principle to downloading a large AI model onto their computer. I’m not one of them, but they’re out there. So in a cultural sense, it is different.

What % of Chrome users (this is the default browser that nearly every 'normal person' uses) do you think is confident (and knowledgeable) enough to answer this quiz:

  For each, indicate whether it's closest to: 4MB, 4GB, or 400GB:

  1. One MP3 song.

  2. A 2-hour movie streamed from Netflix at 4K

  3. The capacity of this computer's SSD.

  4. The free space on the SSD.

  5. The whole of English Wikipedia not including images

  6. a AAA game from 2010 with all its supporting files and DLC

  7. a AAA game from 2026 with all its supporting files and DLC

  8. The total of all software updates you installed last month

I'd say maybe 5% could get 80% of those right. So, most people would be purely guessing the same way I'd be guessing if you asked me if I want 800mg of Beta-Carotene for $1. I don't know for sure if I need any Beta-Carotene, and if I did need some I wouldn't know if 800mg is a little, just right, or way more than I'd ever need, because I'm not a nutritionist.