Is GOS going to strip the AI stuff out of Gallery/ReFra before shipping it?

scruffy_thejanitor

I've been looking for a replacement for the stock gallery app and noticed this repo. Looks like GOS will (eventually) be using ReFra as the new gallery app. Is the AI stuff going to be stripped out before including it with the OS?

Developer-Dude

scruffy_thejanitor Looks like GOS will (eventually) be using ReFra as the new gallery app.

Where did you hear this? Link please?

Developer-Dude

scruffy_thejanitor wonder if this is a better gallery app than Aves Libre? I've been using Aves since the beginning of switching to GOS

Johnnyloans

vtek scruffy_thejanitor

swearing off all AI because of a few is like refusing to use a measuring tape because you read in the news that various tools could be used to hurt people. So every tool cannot be used even a cooking measuring cup.

Don't worry, the most powerful AIs won't be on our phones.

gos_user_1

Developer-Dude https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Gallery/issues/1

scruffy_thejanitor

Developer-Dude honestly, between the two, I'd probably choose Aves. But Fossify seems more in-line with GOS as a whole. Simple, efficient, no bs, better than AOSP in terms of UI/features. Baking in an app like ReFra with AI elements just seems...out of character for a privacy/security OS.

P.S. the link was included 😆

Kamika242

Developer-Dude I've been using Aves since the beginning of switching to GOS

I use Fossify-Gallery (formerly Simple-Gallery). Aves is also excellent, but I miss one thing respectively I didn't find a setting for this: Filenames in the tile grid overview, Fossify has them.

Dumdum

Developer-Dude wonder if this is a better gallery app than Aves Libre?

Graphene devs have stated they want apps to be made with Compose. This is why Refra is being forked. As far as I can tell, Aves is made with Flutter.

Developer-Dude

scruffy_thejanitor P.S. the link was included 😆

Yeah realized that. :)

Developer-Dude

scruffy_thejanitor I haven't tried Fossify Gallery. I may have to. I just tried Aves and was like, it works, so good enough! :D

oldschkool

scruffy_thejanitor But Fossify seems more in-line with GOS as a whole. Simple, efficient, no bs, better than AOSP in terms of UI/features.

scruffy_thejanitor my favorite part about the Fossify suite is lack of internet permission.

I use Fossify Gallery because of the traits you mention and it suits my rather limited needs.

I use a good number Fossify apps to keep my phone clean and minimalist

WAU3604

scruffy_thejanitor Fossify seems more in-line with GOS as a whole

I haven't tested out their whole suite, but their keyboard is decent(Though, I prefer Florisboard rn), And their file manager is a bit faster than the AOSP one, but last I tried it I did not like the design of their gallery. Though I am not sure how their privacy and security standards are.

scruffy_thejanitor

Developer-Dude my favorite part about the Fossify suite is lack of internet permission.

Tandara

Not entirely sure what is wrong with locally-ran classification models. They explicitly state that no internet connection is needed, meaning it will run on your NPU.

scruffy_thejanitor

Tandara because AI shouldn't be baked into the OS. Doesn't matter if it's offline, it's effectively forcing AI down our throats.

DohnJoe

scruffy_thejanitor

I am not speaking on behalf of GrapheneOS, obviously, but I think they mentioned some AI product might enter the ecosystem, even if in a more diluted way.

I think they were referring to some TTS voice created using AI, or something similiar.

Trying to be rational, taking into account the path GOS took (with partnership and whatsonot), I think GOS is preparing something to have some enterprise capabilities, but this is just my opinion, no facts to report.

I would say that having a HW partner might cost / push the team into delivering newer features.

What I think on this regard is that if these features are crafted with the same quality of the rest of the software and with the same passion for security, I don't see anything wrong in having a piece of AI in your smartphone.

Mind that AI doesn't mean ChatGPT, is way more than that.

You probably will have a toggle to disable it and/or possibly a module or an app to disable/uninstall.
Or even better, maybe you will have another app in the GOS store to install (a la opt-in fashion).

Sensation0904

scruffy_thejanitor because AI shouldn't be baked into the OS.

You say this as if it makes any objective sense, but it doesn't. YOU feel it shouldn't be baked into the OS, but there is nothing inherently wrong with it here as it is fully offline.
Your response is like saying antivirus or font rendering shouldn't be baked into the OS. This is an opinion, not a reason why.

raccoondad

scruffy_thejanitor it's effectively forcing AI down our throats.

GOS is already adding a local model for speech to text, this idea GOS wouldn't roll out optional local models for features is unfounded. They already are doing so and nothing about it will inhibit you either not using the feature or just replacing the application with one you prefer.

Meijuta

scruffy_thejanitor
Its not like an LLM or an image degeneration model. Its purely an image identifier. Cramming those other 'AI' down our throats is bad.. but this is effectively like any other algorithm.
Its weird and random that youd be against that programme in particular. Its like being against a blur algorithm. Theres nothing inheritly harmful about it at all and it doesnt benefit anyone but the end user.
Its not running on a datacentre using 5 megalitres of water per week.
Its not pushing a tech CEO's weird agenda.
Its not even writing or degenerating images or anything that perverts art like that.

Its JUST recognition software.
This just comes across like you read 'AI' and assume its like chatGPT or whatever other monstrosity. Reflexively assume its bad without putting proper thought into it.
right?

DohnJoe

My take is, probably GOS will like to show that having a secure OS doesn't have to be "old stuff" only.
I think they would like to have more modern features to attract more users and possibly make the transition to GOS the smoother possible to have less friction and keep those curious users that are still undecided.

Again, I do not speak on behalf of GOS and I want to underline these are just my two cents!

vtek

I am more or less largely ignorant regarding machine learning (so-called AI), but when I read that "we don't know how it works", the prospect of having this running on my devices, internet connection or not, bothers the hell out of me, as do reports of AI Gone Wild and altering/deleting files on its own without being prompted to do so, though I don't know how valid these claims are.

Canardo_Sanchez

This gallery is leaps and bound above any other Foss alternative.

Fantastic UI
Really fast
HDR
Great edition tools

AI function is a bit hit or miss but maybe useful if you have a million pics on your phone.

Foggy

I've not audited the use of AI in Refra but a brief look seems to suggest they use it for recognizing text and images in photos. eg maybe it lets you search for all your cat photos or whatever.

This would seem to me to be less problematic as it's not 'generative AI', it's just a classifier. You can write code to do the same job without using AI - it might be worse but not too different. It may hallucinate the presence of a cat in a picture that doesn't have one, but so will any other classifier have false positives and negatives.

Upstream appears to have a version without mapping support which has no network permission, so if the GOS version turns that off then it wouldn't need network (or GOS can leave it on and you're free to block network if you don't want maps)

bagel

the original poster still hasn't clarified what they mean by "AI features" that are being "forced down [their] throat" so i will proceed to assume this is referring to OCR & image classification models and laugh

anyway if these are any good i will be very happy, the main thing i miss about ios is the very good on-device OCR, very handy for searching through screenshots and such. Good CLIP use would also be great for categorizing photos for search

someone else in this thread mentioned things like "AI deleting files" etc, let me assuage your worries by saying the word AI has lost all meaning and an autonomous LLM-based agent running amok on your system is definitely not what's being talked about. it's a field that has existed for 75 years now for gods sake you use ML-based tools every day

edit: also the app has no network entitlement on the nomap version

Johnnyloans

bagel if these are any good i will be very happy

It's performs as well as the average edge model not developed by a billion dollar conpany.

A picture of a wall is the beach
An email with technical info is architecture
A fire is the sunset
Screenshots of items to buy is sports (some sort of look like sticks I guess?)

vtek

bagel someone else in this thread mentioned things like "AI deleting files" etc, let me assuage your worries by saying the word AI has lost all meaning and an autonomous LLM-based agent running amok on your system is definitely not what's being talked about.

You know this how? The OP didn't make their concerns clear and given the many concerns regarding AI, and AI running amok, that very well could have been a concern. It certainly is in my mind.

Now maybe the particular AI being used in a gallery app isn't capable of that, but that would require an audit of the code to be sure. I'm not anti-AI, but there needs to be guard rails.

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