7 ms·

If you think this is useful... remember technology like this would make totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. If you thought that ads are creepy, Atlas is a

by jryio 1y ago

If you think this is useful... remember technology like this would make totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. If you thought that ads are creepy, Atlas is a root level keylogger service. Why would you want an AI company scraping and recording all of your browser interactions. Yes Google already does this via Chrome. It's one thing to build a predictive model on your demographic, spending, location and income information in order to target then sell you advertisements... Quite another thing to build a model of your cognition by recording you from a company that is trying to build general intelligence - this is a training data and cognition exfiltration play.

Razengan 1y ago
Man, with AI burrowing into everything, imagine the inevitable data breach...
GenerWork 1y ago
>It's one thing to build a predictive model on your demographic, spending and location and income information in order to target and sell you advertisements, and quite another thing to build a model of your cognition itself by recording you If Atlas is successful, there's no reason why Google won't try to mimic it. They already have Chrome and Gemini, all they'd have to do is put Gemini directly into Chrome, dedicate some TPUs to Gemini instances that are tied to Chrome, and boom, it's Atlas.
- babelfish 1y ago
  Gemini is already in Chrome. Atlas seems neat but it is not a unique product.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- nextworddev 1y ago
  They already have Gemini for chrome which no one uses.
  - ncr100 1y ago
    There's a dedicated button for it, now .. I speculate its usage will take up soon. - Chrome 141.0.7390.108 macOS
    - accrual 1y ago
      Yes, I don't use Chrome, but had to open it the other day and noticed an "AI Mode" button in the URL bar. No thank you.
  - andysinclair 1y ago
    and there is Copilot for Edge which no one uses. It can also summarize pages, scale recipes etc.
    - m4xw3llx 1y ago
      That Copilot feature is very useful actually, the summarize is good enough for a free AI with no ads.
  - beardyw 1y ago
    Not sure how you can say that. Half the time you do a search the answer comes from Gemini. It might be the most used, without anyone doing it deliberately.
- ethmarks 1y ago
  > all they'd have to do is put Gemini directly into Chrome Google would never do that! /s https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/ https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/
- onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
  > If Atlas is successful, there's no reason why Google won't try to mimic it. Regulation.
ssl-3 1y ago
My web browser runs as root? Atlas runs as root? Atlas is a keylogger that indiscriminately watches what I type? Are any of these things true?
- kvirani 1y ago
  Yes
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Ezhik 1y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1200/ https://xkcd.com/1200/
- jsheard 1y ago
  I assume they mean a web browser has root access to everything you do online, which is so far-reaching nowadays that it's not far from having root over your whole machine in terms of actual exposure.
  - jryio 1y ago
    Indeed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45659156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45659156
I_am_tiberius 1y ago
+1000
kvirani 1y ago
Well said. Can't wait for the windows version so I can use it. Jk jk
srcreigh 1y ago
> technology like this would make totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. Do we really need to use hypothetical language?
TranquilMarmot 1y ago
This seems like a very good way for them to get more training data that they're hungry for after ingesting everything from the web.
eMPee584 1y ago
Good thing is: they have no moat – there will be open source alternatives, even if a little later and a little less performant.
- felarof 1y ago
  You have a great business sense! There is an open source alternative -- browserOS.com
hbn 1y ago
After skimming the product page I'm still not sure what extra data exactly everyone is so confident is being gathered/used in a way that Google wouldn't already be doing in Chrome. As far as I can tell, most of these features are already integrated into Chrome but with Gemini. What exact feature in Atlas would need to log your every keystroke? Could they be doing that? Yes. But so could Google and in both cases they've got about equal reason to be doing it and feeding it into your personalized prediction model. I don't see how this is so different from Chrome.
- EGreg 1y ago
  Our trusted computing base should be small, built from open-source, and not under the control of one company. But sadly, here we are. How do we know GMail can't steal your bank account info and Chrome can't steal ... everything from your web browsing, or impersonate you? All they have to do is be pressured by a government: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7250 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislat...
  - dotancohen 1y ago
    Could you mention where in that bill there is concern for the Australian government pressuring tech companies for the ability to impersonate you? Thank you!
- josfredo 1y ago
  I like how honest and blunt your comment is, and what it says about our current relationship with bigtech. Because what you say is accurate, people no longer see a problem in adopting technologies like OpenAI's Atlas. Google set a standard, and what used to be a massive red flag is now "a price we've already paid". No new harm is felt.
- alex_smart 1y ago
  > Browser memories let ChatGPT remember useful details from your web browsing to provide better responses and suggestions, while maintaining privacy and user control. Users can opt-in during setup or in Settings > Personalization > Reference browser memories. > As you browse in Atlas, web content is summarized on our servers. We apply safety and sensitive data filters that are designed to keep out personally identifiable information (like government IDs, SSNs, bank account numbers, online credentials, account recovery content, and addresses), and private data like medical records and financial information. We block summaries altogether on certain sensitive websites (like adult sites). So the actual content of every page you visit is sent to ChatGPT servers. That is WAY more invasive than anything Chrome does afaik.
qustrolabe 1y ago
[flagged]
- stavros 1y ago
  That's not how I read it. I read it as "make sure you know what you're trading away for that usefulness, because regimes can change quickly".
femiagbabiaka 1y ago
The solution seems to be the Apple approach, problem is that people don't seem to like that UX very much.
- CuriouslyC 1y ago
  The problem with the apple approach is that it's fine grained and you have to restart apps for every change. I wouldn't care if nothing was allowed by default if when an app tried to do stuff it popped up the dialog at that time and asked for permissions needed to accomplish that task, but having to toggle stuff separately and restart the app each time is horrible UX.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
teaearlgraycold 1y ago
> Yes Google already does this via Chrome. Easy solution: Use Firefox except for web developers who need to occasionally check Chrome compatibility.
mk89 1y ago
Man, literally everything we have been doing since the 90's makes totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. Do you understand we're willingly sharing our name, surname, relationships, friends, where we work, what we do, how much we make (not maybe precisely, but with some social engineering you can get that), in some cases even private intimate videos, pics of our families, etc. Everything. There is nothing else they need anymore. If they want to, they get you. Any time. And yet, things work relatively well.
- kossTKR 1y ago
  Things work "relatively well" for billionaires and the status quo though. You probably have no idea how much working class anger, how many unknown groups and "screams from the abyss" are being targeted, removed, censored, deranked before they gain any critical mass in this bizarre cybernetic web that's been created. I sure don't. But sometimes you feel it on a gut level, flooded in a torrent of PR and entertainment, mind controlling algorithms and mainstream media with an increasingly tiny overton window disregarding the circus of culture wars farming attention and steering political anger for economic political gains - through a media landscape where all local news, actual working class papers representing real people, and diversity of thought has been replaced by thoughts™ approved by one of the few giga corporations working for a microscopic plutocracy. It's over 100 years since Edward Bernays et al. invented modern PR, then came astroturfing, and now it's all so weird and colossal that no talks about what was seemingly obvious a century ago.
mhitza 1y ago
Microsoft Recall, but with this people would be opting into that feature. Definitely improves and opens up new ad targeting opportunities for OpenAI.

by jryio 1y ago

Razengan 1y ago

Man, with AI burrowing into everything, imagine the inevitable data breach...

GenerWork 1y ago

>It's one thing to build a predictive model on your demographic, spending and location and income information in order to target and sell you advertisements, and quite another thing to build a model of your cognition itself by recording you If Atlas is successful, there's no reason why Google won't try to mimic it. They already have Chrome and Gemini, all they'd have to do is put Gemini directly into Chrome, dedicate some TPUs to Gemini instances that are tied to Chrome, and boom, it's Atlas.

babelfish 1y ago
Gemini is already in Chrome. Atlas seems neat but it is not a unique product.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
nextworddev 1y ago
They already have Gemini for chrome which no one uses.
- ncr100 1y ago
  There's a dedicated button for it, now .. I speculate its usage will take up soon. - Chrome 141.0.7390.108 macOS
  - accrual 1y ago
    Yes, I don't use Chrome, but had to open it the other day and noticed an "AI Mode" button in the URL bar. No thank you.
- andysinclair 1y ago
  and there is Copilot for Edge which no one uses. It can also summarize pages, scale recipes etc.
  - m4xw3llx 1y ago
    That Copilot feature is very useful actually, the summarize is good enough for a free AI with no ads.
- beardyw 1y ago
  Not sure how you can say that. Half the time you do a search the answer comes from Gemini. It might be the most used, without anyone doing it deliberately.
ethmarks 1y ago
> all they'd have to do is put Gemini directly into Chrome Google would never do that! /s https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/ https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/
onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
> If Atlas is successful, there's no reason why Google won't try to mimic it. Regulation.

ssl-3 1y ago

My web browser runs as root? Atlas runs as root? Atlas is a keylogger that indiscriminately watches what I type? Are any of these things true?

kvirani 1y ago
Yes
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Ezhik 1y ago
https://xkcd.com/1200/ https://xkcd.com/1200/
jsheard 1y ago
I assume they mean a web browser has root access to everything you do online, which is so far-reaching nowadays that it's not far from having root over your whole machine in terms of actual exposure.
- jryio 1y ago
  Indeed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45659156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45659156

I_am_tiberius 1y ago

+1000

kvirani 1y ago

Well said. Can't wait for the windows version so I can use it. Jk jk

srcreigh 1y ago

> technology like this would make totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. Do we really need to use hypothetical language?

TranquilMarmot 1y ago

This seems like a very good way for them to get more training data that they're hungry for after ingesting everything from the web.

eMPee584 1y ago

Good thing is: they have no moat – there will be open source alternatives, even if a little later and a little less performant.

felarof 1y ago
You have a great business sense! There is an open source alternative -- browserOS.com

hbn 1y ago

After skimming the product page I'm still not sure what extra data exactly everyone is so confident is being gathered/used in a way that Google wouldn't already be doing in Chrome. As far as I can tell, most of these features are already integrated into Chrome but with Gemini. What exact feature in Atlas would need to log your every keystroke? Could they be doing that? Yes. But so could Google and in both cases they've got about equal reason to be doing it and feeding it into your personalized prediction model. I don't see how this is so different from Chrome.

EGreg 1y ago
Our trusted computing base should be small, built from open-source, and not under the control of one company. But sadly, here we are. How do we know GMail can't steal your bank account info and Chrome can't steal ... everything from your web browsing, or impersonate you? All they have to do is be pressured by a government: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7250 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislat...
- dotancohen 1y ago
  Could you mention where in that bill there is concern for the Australian government pressuring tech companies for the ability to impersonate you? Thank you!
josfredo 1y ago
I like how honest and blunt your comment is, and what it says about our current relationship with bigtech. Because what you say is accurate, people no longer see a problem in adopting technologies like OpenAI's Atlas. Google set a standard, and what used to be a massive red flag is now "a price we've already paid". No new harm is felt.
alex_smart 1y ago
> Browser memories let ChatGPT remember useful details from your web browsing to provide better responses and suggestions, while maintaining privacy and user control. Users can opt-in during setup or in Settings > Personalization > Reference browser memories. > As you browse in Atlas, web content is summarized on our servers. We apply safety and sensitive data filters that are designed to keep out personally identifiable information (like government IDs, SSNs, bank account numbers, online credentials, account recovery content, and addresses), and private data like medical records and financial information. We block summaries altogether on certain sensitive websites (like adult sites). So the actual content of every page you visit is sent to ChatGPT servers. That is WAY more invasive than anything Chrome does afaik.

qustrolabe 1y ago

[flagged]

stavros 1y ago
That's not how I read it. I read it as "make sure you know what you're trading away for that usefulness, because regimes can change quickly".

femiagbabiaka 1y ago

The solution seems to be the Apple approach, problem is that people don't seem to like that UX very much.

CuriouslyC 1y ago
The problem with the apple approach is that it's fine grained and you have to restart apps for every change. I wouldn't care if nothing was allowed by default if when an app tried to do stuff it popped up the dialog at that time and asked for permissions needed to accomplish that task, but having to toggle stuff separately and restart the app each time is horrible UX.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

teaearlgraycold 1y ago

> Yes Google already does this via Chrome. Easy solution: Use Firefox except for web developers who need to occasionally check Chrome compatibility.

mk89 1y ago

Man, literally everything we have been doing since the 90's makes totalitarian leaders foam at the mouth. Do you understand we're willingly sharing our name, surname, relationships, friends, where we work, what we do, how much we make (not maybe precisely, but with some social engineering you can get that), in some cases even private intimate videos, pics of our families, etc. Everything. There is nothing else they need anymore. If they want to, they get you. Any time. And yet, things work relatively well.

kossTKR 1y ago
Things work "relatively well" for billionaires and the status quo though. You probably have no idea how much working class anger, how many unknown groups and "screams from the abyss" are being targeted, removed, censored, deranked before they gain any critical mass in this bizarre cybernetic web that's been created. I sure don't. But sometimes you feel it on a gut level, flooded in a torrent of PR and entertainment, mind controlling algorithms and mainstream media with an increasingly tiny overton window disregarding the circus of culture wars farming attention and steering political anger for economic political gains - through a media landscape where all local news, actual working class papers representing real people, and diversity of thought has been replaced by thoughts™ approved by one of the few giga corporations working for a microscopic plutocracy. It's over 100 years since Edward Bernays et al. invented modern PR, then came astroturfing, and now it's all so weird and colossal that no talks about what was seemingly obvious a century ago.

mhitza 1y ago

Microsoft Recall, but with this people would be opting into that feature. Definitely improves and opens up new ad targeting opportunities for OpenAI.