Google Chrome secretly installed a 4GB Gemini AI model on your computer: here's what we know

Google Chrome browser on your desktop may be taking more space than you think. The matter came to light via blogpost from Swedish computer scientist Alexander Hanff who stated that Google Chrome is automatically downloading a 4GB AI model on their browser without the explicit permission of users.

Hanff notes that the file is named can be found in ‘OptGuideOnDeviceModel’ in a file named ‘weights.bin’. The AI model in question is said to Gemini Nano, the small AI model from the techg giant that runs locally on the user's devices rather than taking the data into the cloud.

However, the model seems to be only installing if you have enabled certain Chrome AI features in your browser such as ‘help me write’ or on device scam detection. In such scenarios, Chrome would automatically download the Gemini Nano model on your system, and if you delete the file, it would be redownloaded by the browser.

As per a report by The Verge, the only way to get rid of the AI model is to manually turn of the ‘on-device AI’ option by navigating to Settings/System.

In a developer page, Google notes that if you start having storage issues, Gemini Nano is automatically deleted from the system.

“Chrome actively manages disk space to ensure the user doesn’t run out. The Gemini Nano model is automatically deleted if the device’s free disk space drops below a certain threshold.” the company wrote in its developer page

In a separate statement to 9to5Google, the tech giant said, “We’ve offered Gemini Nano for Chrome since 2024 as a lightweight, on-device model. It powers important security capabilities like scam detection and developer APIs without sending your data to the cloud.”

“While this requires some local space on the desktop to run, the model will automatically uninstall if the device is low on resources. In February, we began rolling out the ability for users to easily turn off and remove the model directly in Chrome settings. Once disabled the model will no longer download or update. More details in our help center article.” it added