You did not set up it. You were not requested. It’s possible you’ll not have even identified it was there. However for those who use Google Chrome on a desktop laptop, there is a affordable probability {that a} 4GB AI mannequin referred to as Gemini Nano is sitting in your onerous drive proper now, positioned there mechanically by Chrome someday between late April and early Might 2026. Safety researcher Alexander Hanff flagged the silent rollout, which impacts eligible gadgets operating latest variations of Chrome and provides no consent display screen, no pop-up and no setting to straightforwardly forestall it. Privateness advocates say the follow could violate European knowledge legislation. Here is the way to examine your machine — and take away the file, a minimum of quickly.
The mysterious file in query is Gemini Nano, an AI mannequin that runs on gadgets corresponding to smartphones and laptops slightly than within the cloud. In response to Alexander Hanff, a Swedish laptop scientist and lawyer often called That Privateness Man, it has been put in on some folks’s Chrome browsers with out permission. You will not know when it has been downloaded onto your machine, both.
Hanff mentioned 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 corresponding 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 capsule within the tackle bar. In case you use AI Mode, your queries are routed to Google Gemini servers, to not Gemini Nano.
A Google spokesperson instructed CNET that Gemini Nano will mechanically uninstall if the machine would not have sufficient assets, corresponding 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 mentioned. “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.
Find out how to do away with the AI mannequin
If you wish to take away the 4GB AI mannequin out of your machine, first examine whether or not it is put in.
Hanff mentioned Chrome customers is not going to know they’ve Gemini Nano except 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
In case 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 Utility Help > Google > Chrome > Default. See if there is a folder referred to as OptGuideOnDeviceModel. If the folder exists and comprises 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
In case you’re operating a Home windows machine, there are a couple of methods to examine whether or not Gemini Nano is put in.
A method 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 may also use File Explorer to examine 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, observe these steps:
Open Chrome, navigate to Settings > System, and toggle off On-device AI.
Whereas nonetheless in Chrome, kind chrome://flags within the tackle bar and seek for “optimization information.” Then, set “Permits optimization information on machine” to Disabled.
Then restart Chrome by fully closing it, utilizing the menu to exit, not simply closing home windows.
Lastly, delete native recordsdata by navigating to AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser Knowledge 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 Anticipate
Why does it matter?
Hanff mentioned the push may be meant to assist Google reduce prices by transferring AI work off its personal servers and onto your laptop.
“Operating inference on customers’ personal {hardware} permits them to push ‘AI options’ with out the compute prices,” Hanff instructed CNET.
However Hanff prompt there may very well be authorized ramifications, a minimum of in Europe. He prompt that the Gemini Nano set up might represent a breach of the European Union’s Common Knowledge Safety Regulation’s rules of lawfulness, equity and transparency. Hanff mentioned that, contemplating the potential environmental impacts, Google ought to have introduced it beneath the Company Sustainability Reporting Directive.
“Google has given us each motive to not belief them with a historical past spanning 20 years of worldwide privateness violations at large scale,” Hanff instructed 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.”