You did not set up it. You were not requested. You might not have even recognized it was there. However when you use Google Chrome on a desktop pc, there is a affordable likelihood {that a} 4GB AI mannequin known as Gemini Nano is sitting in your exhausting drive proper now, positioned there routinely by Chrome someday between late April and early Could 2026. Safety researcher Alexander Hanff flagged the silent rollout, which impacts eligible gadgets operating current variations of Chrome and affords no consent display, no pop-up and no setting to straightforwardly forestall it. Privateness advocates say the follow could violate European knowledge legislation. Here is test your machine — and take away the file, at the least briefly.
The mysterious file in query is Gemini Nano, an AI mannequin that runs on gadgets akin to smartphones and laptops moderately than within the cloud. In response to Alexander Hanff, a Swedish pc scientist and lawyer referred to as That Privateness Man, it has been put in on some individuals’s Chrome browsers with out permission. You will not know when it has been downloaded onto your machine, both.
Hanff stated Gemini Nano will solely be put in if the machine meets the {hardware} necessities. It is unknown how many individuals have gotten the set up.
Gemini Nano performs duties akin to detecting rip-off telephone calls, serving to you write textual content messages, summarizing recordings and analyzing Pixel telephone screenshots. It is to not be confused with the AI Mode tablet within the handle bar. Should you use AI Mode, your queries are routed to Google Gemini servers, to not Gemini Nano.
A Google spokesperson advised CNET that Gemini Nano will routinely uninstall if the machine would not have sufficient assets, akin to processing energy, RAM reminiscence, cupboard space or community bandwidth.
“In February, we started rolling out the power for customers to simply flip off and take away the mannequin immediately in Chrome settings,” the spokesperson stated. “As soon as disabled, the mannequin will not obtain or replace.”
Google provides extra details about on-device generative AI fashions in Chrome on this web page.
Learn how to do away with the AI mannequin
If you wish to take away the 4GB AI mannequin out of your machine, first test whether or not it is put in.
Hanff stated Chrome customers won’t know they’ve Gemini Nano until they seek for it, as a result of “Chrome didn’t ask” and “Chrome doesn’t floor it.”
The simplest technique to take away Gemini Nano out of your machine is to uninstall Chrome.
On a Mac
Should you’re utilizing a Mac, open Finder by clicking the blue smiling face icon on the far left of the dock or urgent Command (⌘) + N on an empty spot on the desktop.
Then, click on Go within the menu bar and maintain the Possibility key in order that Library seems within the dropdown menu. Click on Library, then navigate to Software Help > Google > Chrome > Default. See if there is a folder known as OptGuideOnDeviceModel. If the folder exists and accommodates a file named weights.bin, the AI mannequin was put in.
To completely take away it on a Mac, open Chrome and click on the three-dot menu within the top-right nook. Then click on Settings, then System and toggle off On-device AI.
On a Home windows machine
Should you’re operating a Home windows machine, there are just a few methods to test whether or not Gemini Nano is put in.
A technique is by way of a Run Command. Press the Home windows key and R, paste in %LOCALAPPDATApercentGoogleChromeUser DataOptGuideOnDeviceModel after which press Enter. If that file comes up, see if weights.bin is in there.
You can even use File Explorer to test whether or not the AI mannequin is put in. Navigate to C:Customers[YourUsername]AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataOptGuideOnDeviceModel and search for weights.bin.
To do away with the AI mannequin in Home windows, comply with these steps:
Open Chrome, navigate to Settings > System, and toggle off On-device AI.
Whereas nonetheless in Chrome, kind chrome://flags within the handle bar and seek for “optimization information.” Then, set “Permits optimization information on machine” to Disabled.
Then restart Chrome by utterly closing it, utilizing the menu to exit, not simply closing home windows.
Lastly, delete native information by navigating to AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser Information and deleting the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder.
Watch this: Google I/O 2026: New Gemini, Good Glasses and a Complete New Laptop computer OS. Here is What to Count on
Why does it matter?
Hanff stated the push could be supposed to assist Google minimize prices by transferring AI work off its personal servers and onto your pc.
“Working inference on customers’ personal {hardware} permits them to push ‘AI options’ with out the compute prices,” Hanff advised CNET.
However Hanff prompt there might be authorized ramifications, at the least in Europe. He prompt that the Gemini Nano set up may represent a breach of the European Union’s Basic Information Safety Regulation’s rules of lawfulness, equity and transparency. Hanff stated that, contemplating the potential environmental impacts, Google ought to have introduced it below the Company Sustainability Reporting Directive.
“Google has given us each cause to not belief them with a historical past spanning 20 years of world privateness violations at large scale,” Hanff advised CNET. “So, I believe they figured asking permission (what the legislation requires) would hinder their capacity to push this mannequin and, in fact, no matter comes after it.”
