Chrome is quietly downloading a 4GB AI model without your permission

[Olde Hornet]

MSN

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Google Chrome offers plenty of AI features, but some of them could quietly eat up your device storage. As spotted by The Privacy Guy, the browser automatically downloads a 4GB model to support on-device AI features, and it may stay on your PC unless the features are turned off.

The AI model in question is Gemini Nano, a lighter version of Google’s Gemini model that runs on your computer to support features such as writing assistance, web page summaries, scam detection, and tab organization.

If you opt in to these features, Chrome will download a file named “weights.bin” in the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder without notifying you. According to The Privacy Guy, the file gets downloaded when you run Chrome 147. I wasn’t able to find the file on my Mac running the same version, but 9to5Google spotted it on a Windows machine.

 

[Herbert77060]

MSN

​

Google Chrome offers plenty of AI features, but some of them could quietly eat up your device storage. As spotted by The Privacy Guy, the browser automatically downloads a 4GB model to support on-device AI features, and it may stay on your PC unless the features are turned off.

The AI model in question is Gemini Nano, a lighter version of Google’s Gemini model that runs on your computer to support features such as writing assistance, web page summaries, scam detection, and tab organization.

If you opt in to these features, Chrome will download a file named “weights.bin” in the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder without notifying you. According to The Privacy Guy, the file gets downloaded when you run Chrome 147. I wasn’t able to find the file on my Mac running the same version, but 9to5Google spotted it on a Windows machine.

What version of windows?