Why is Vivaldi's anti-AI browser a great option for Internet users?

Vivaldi has stated that it will not add AI to its browser, citing concerns about accuracy, ethics, and the environment. One of the dangers of the Internet, dominated by a few platforms, is that it's hard to escape whatever Silicon Valley decides we should do next. The even better news is that Vivaldi is a pretty great browser and is available almost everywhere.

"Thanks to the Vivaldi team for taking such a clear and firm stance. There is a lot of pressure from major interest groups to add Machine Learning technology to everything from operating systems to nail clippers. You and famous technology publishers will certainly also produce articles criticizing Vivaldi's choice, so they will have to trade off when doing this', operating system and open source expert Thom Holwerda writes on his OS News blog.

Anti-AI

AI is everywhere now, and it seems like running away from it is getting harder and harder. On one side are large companies like Microsoft and Apple that search for copyrighted data on the "open web" to feed their training models without asking permission or giving anyone an optional way to participate. . On the other side are operating system features like Microsoft's CoPilot Recall or most of iOS 18, which force users to use AI features with no way to opt out other than not buying the latest devices.

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AI problems are diverse. First, it's not clever at all, offering a series of strangely false images or dangerously fabricated gibberish text. Then, as mentioned, there are ethical violations of training models based on other people's data, downloading movies, TV shows, images, essays, photos, posts on blog and everything else, and then use them without permission or payment.

And perhaps the biggest concern today is that AI data centers use so much energy that they cause climate problems. Some new AI data centers are using renewable energy, but for now, that means they're eating up all of their renewable energy capacity, so we're forced to keep burning fossil fuels. instead of converting. This is something we can hardly afford.

"Deploying AI across multiple platforms and applications is computationally and financially expensive. As the technology evolves, tech companies will likely move from widespread deployment to more focused deployment for application brings the most benefit ," Professor Benjamin Lee, a computer scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, told Lifewire via email.

Free of charge

This is why we need alternatives like Vivaldi. Vivaldi is a cross-platform web browser with an integrated mail client, news reader, etc. It is designed to do most of what you need without the need for plugins, so it has an ad blocker and built-in tracker, for example. It is based on the Chrome engine and you can use most Chrome and Firefox plugins. If you are familiar with the options available in browsers like Safari, then you will also enjoy Vivaldi because it is full of features and customizations.

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However, one wonders how any application maker or operating system provider can defend against this thing and for how long. After all, there are so many uses of "AI" that we don't really think of in that way. For example, whenever you use Google Translate, use Apple's built-in spell prediction feature, or whenever you click to remove a distracting object from the background of a photo, it's all Machine Learning.

What happens when site summaries or accessibility features like automatic image descriptions become standard in browsers? It will be difficult to persevere against AI features, as your software product will gradually look outdated. And even if the software offered a way to turn off all AI features, that would be like expecting a vegetarian to buy tofu from the butcher.

It's a tough one, but for now, it's great to have options like Vivaldi and entire operating systems like Linux where you can opt out of the destruction of the web and the planet.

Samuel Daniel

Update 09 July 2024