Google Chrome Just Silently Installed A 4GB AI Model On Your Device - Here's How To Remove It

Key Points:

• Google Chrome silently installs a roughly 4 GB file named weights.bin on all machines with the browser, which is part of the Gemini Nano AI model supporting features like "Help me Write" and scam detection.
• These AI features are enabled by default in the latest Chrome releases, causing the large file to download automatically and reinstall continuously unless specific AI-related flags are disabled.
• To stop the download and remove the file, users need to disable the "Optimization Guide On-Device" flag via chrome://flags and delete the weights.bin file from the user profile directory; this method works on Windows and Mac.
• Additional AI-related flags can be disabled to remove AI interface elements like the AI button in the address bar and AI features on new tabs, and users should also consider disabling "On device AI" in Chrome's system settings.
• Privacy advocates and some users recommend avoiding Google Chrome altogether due to these undisclosed AI downloads, with Apple advising iPhone users to stop using the browser.