This still doesn’t mean Google has some kind of ownership for it. Nobody stops you from forking it and taking it into a different direction.

ai shit is all easy to disable

Users don’t have to disable it. Just give them a browser where they’re not enabled by default!

Google tech

Chromium is open-source. It doesn’t belong to Google or anyone else.

There aren’t better alternatives

They are literally mentioned in the article:

Those unhappy have another option: use an AI‑free Firefox fork such as LibreWolf, Waterfox, or Zen Browser.

- https://manualdousuario.net/en/mozilla-firefox-window-ai/.

Yes. Chromium isn’t bad in itself though.

What do you mean by “we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of good”? Why should I use a browser which is actively anti-user when there are better alternatives out there?

8 GB of RAM was a basic minimum standard to do anything on a computer 10 years ago

That’s called “privilege”.

bold, italics, etc. are used to indicate context

How can you guarantee they are? There are no technical restrictions or instructions on how much or where you can use emphasis and strong emphasis in your message. Until that’s not the case, “italic” and “bold” should be treated as purely presentational markup.

used for accessibility purposes

Screen readers do not and should not care about presentation; abusing semantic markup to indicate through emphasis that something is italic or bold is anti-accessibility.