Look at Apple. They announced a pretty similar thing to recall but managed to get praised as creative innovators by using the correct combination of buzzwords. Creating a sense of privacy and security though from a technical point of view they offer neither. Google learned that it is not the tech, it is the marketing. MS botched the optics when they were on a downward reputational spiral, Apple nailed the optics banking on their locked in sla…users inside the walled garden. Google just has to figure their own strategy to good optics on the tech.
Not one to one, but it is an AI that sees and records everything on the screen and device data to predict user actions and so the AI can work the prompts with some context. It's still an app that sees your screen 24/7 then feeds it to an LLM. Sure, Apple says it is local (but it will phone home if the task is too complex sending your, encrypted, data along with it), and they claim OpenAI will sandbox chatgpt to prevent profiling (even though we have absolutely no reason to believe Altman is being sufficiently candid), and that it will be opt-in (though we know Apple will present the thing specifically designed for maximum FOMO).
I mean, you can look all over their marketing material. They're not coy about it, they just gave it an euphemism. They called it “awareness of your personal context”. That is just code for “it sees and records every single thing you do”. The other euphemistic term is the “product knowledge about your devices' features and settings”. They even throw some contradictions “it is aware of your personal information without collecting your personal information”??? How? How could I be aware of the plot of Frankenstein without ever “collecting” some form of record containing the plot of Frankenstein?
Sooo that could be things like “address” fields on websites, which is mildly creepy, but not “screenshot every 30 seconds” creepy, but it’s certainly vague enough to make me feel uneasy.
It's vague on purpose. They saw the peasants ravaging MS for giving too many details. It's vague enough that most people won't give it a second thought and opt in anyway. Because it is the new shiny thing from Apple that they totally just invented and not copied from other companies.
Well I give them credit for trying to be transparent with the server code (they made a press release about it just recently), but I worry that you may be right.
It could be the same shit.
I’d like to believe that Apple recognizes the value in privacy, given they’re making it a central part of their brand, and I know it’s been a big part of their tech up until now…..
But I’m also aware that they’re beholden to the same cash that corrupts everyone else.
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