Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking

[Daniel Sims]

Ripple effect: Google started turning Chrome, the world's most popular web browser, into an AI browser last year in response to threats from popular AI-native rivals such as OpenAI. Recent reports have uncovered that this transition includes silently installing a large cache of AI weights on an unknown but potentially significant number of devices.

Google Chrome users who have noticed unusual disk activity or unexplained drops in available storage should look for a folder called "OptGuideOnDeviceModel" inside their Chrome directory. It holds roughly 4GB of weights for Google's Gemini Nano LLM, downloaded by the browser without user consent.

Deleting the folder offers no lasting relief – Chrome will simply redownload it. On Windows 11, the folder resides at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\OptGuideOnDeviceModel. It has also been confirmed on Apple Silicon and Ubuntu machines.

Uninstalling Chrome entirely is the most effective way to remove the weights. However, those who wish to continue using the browser might be able to disable the download by entering "chrome://flags" into the address bar, finding an item called "Enables optimization guide on device on Android," and selecting "Disabled" from the adjacent dropdown menu. This is also how users can determine whether their device is eligible for the feature.

According to Alexander Hanff, a computer scientist and lawyer who verified the behavior in the macOS kernel file system log, users have reported the automatic downloads for around a year. They might coincide with the introduction of AI features in Chrome last fall, such as writing assistance, AI summaries, and automatic browsing.

The downloads carry a notable irony: Chrome's most visible AI feature, the AI mode integrated into the address bar and Google Search, runs on Google's servers rather than the locally stored weights. The 4GB folder is only used for writing assistance and a handful of other features accessible several menus deep.

Given Chrome's billions of users, the total number of affected devices – and the bandwidth consumed – could be substantial. Hanff estimates that pushing 4GB to hundreds of millions or billions of devices would amount to several exabytes of data transferred, potentially generating between 6,000 and 60,000 metric tons of CO2.

However, determining the total number is difficult. This editor searched for the AI weights on two Windows 11 devices that are a few years old and found that both were ineligible, so Google might only be pushing the LLM to more modern machines.

Hanff has formally accused Google of violating European privacy regulations by compelling users to download a significant volume of data without their knowledge or consent.

Permalink to story:

Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

I’m wondering why there’s an outrage here. This has been well documented and is an advertised feature in Chrome. As the article says, you can turn it off. And here are some of the news about this feature going back two years:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1d9v9kb/gemini_nano_with_chrome_in_your_browser

https://www.lifewire.com/chrome-ai-scam-protection-11731694

Expanding built-in AI to more devices with Chrome | Blog | Chrome for Developers

We're expanding Gemini Nano's inference support to CPUs.

developer.chrome.com

AI in Chrome: help right where you need it

Explore the next generation of AI in Chrome, with features in privacy and security, performance, productivity, and accessibility with generative AI to make it easier and more efficient to browse.

www.google.com

Anyways, relying on an AI model installed locally is a privacy feature, not a violation. The way this article is written gave me a chuckle, thanks TechSpot!

 

[NumberNine]

Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking

Not to pick nits, but that's not possible.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I’m wondering why there’s an outrage here. This has been well documented and is an advertised feature in Chrome. As the article says, you can turn it off. And here are some of the news about this feature going back two years:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1d9v9kb/gemini_nano_with_chrome_in_your_browser

https://www.lifewire.com/chrome-ai-scam-protection-11731694

Expanding built-in AI to more devices with Chrome | Blog | Chrome for Developers

We're expanding Gemini Nano's inference support to CPUs.

developer.chrome.com

AI in Chrome: help right where you need it

Explore the next generation of AI in Chrome, with features in privacy and security, performance, productivity, and accessibility with generative AI to make it easier and more efficient to browse.

www.google.com

Anyways, relying on an AI model installed locally is a privacy feature, not a violation. The way this article is written gave me a chuckle, thanks TechSpot!

Having to muck about in browser flags is not simply "just turn it off bro" anymore then a registry hack is "just turning it off".

Also running this feature locally in no way implies it protects your privacy! Talk about a chuckle, did you think that AI models installed locally cant track what you do and upload it to the mothership?

Not to pick nits, but that's not possible.

It's absolutely possible.

 

[ragreeen2646]

AI is becoming an enemy of the people.

 

[daffy duck]

I haven't installed a Chrome broswer in any of my pc's or laptops (yes alas Edge is there). Utter POS browser, by an utter POS company. If I must suffer ChromeOS it will be through Brave or Vivaldi. Firefox all the way for me.

 

[riev90]

I haven't used Chrome since 2023.
All my PCs (2 for kids, 1 for me), 2 smartphones all use Brave or Safari.

The PCs I've built for my friends also I've installed with Brave.
Work flawlessly and they like it now that they don't have to watch ads every time they browse youtube video.

 

[abactuon]

Chromium ?

 

[Hecate91]

Yet another reason to avoid Chrome.
I prefer Firefox, however Waterfox or Floorp are good forks to avoid the AI stuff Mozilla is pushing.

 

[scoffer]

You already mentioned the remedy...........get the Chrome garbage OFF your device. Try another browser.

 

[NumberNine]

It's absolutely possible.

The headline says they're pushing it to my device. My device doesn't have Chrome.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Having to muck about in browser flags is not simply "just turn it off bro" anymore then a registry hack is "just turning it off".

Also running this feature locally in no way implies it protects your privacy! Talk about a chuckle, did you think that AI models installed locally cant track what you do and upload it to the mothership?

This is Google Chrome we’re talking about. You’re acting like this is unexpected and noteworthy. Google does stuff like this all the time. Heck they track all your search suggestions and probably all browsing history by default. If you wanted a private browser, then you wouldn’t be using Chrome.

 

[brucek]

"Hanff has formally accused Google of violating European privacy regulations by compelling users to download a significant volume of data without their knowledge or consent."

How significant is this really in the modern era? To Netflix that's maybe half of one movie. And don't even ask Steam.

I have to respect his pearl clutching game by doubling down on it as a pollution issue. Why stop there? There's got to be a model somewhere that could link that hypothetical pollution to some starving children.

Maybe rather than go the shocked hyperbole route, TechSpot could refresh its browser comparison guides, showing updated performance and resource usage. If the additional 4 GB (under what conditions?) gives Chrome a newly elevated Resource Hog crown, that's the place to show it. New updates for the AI era could include what features run locally vs. in the cloud; there will be users who prefer both approaches.

 

[Endymio]

Having to muck about in browser flags is not simply "just turn it off bro" anymore then a registry hack is "just turning it off".

I don't recall *anyone* having Google Chrome downloaded onto their device without them downloading it themselves. Do you? If you choose to install an app, you can't complain about the features it chooses to implement.

 

[Amamoh]

Not to pick nits, but that's not possible.

And the Earth is flat...

 

[abactuon]

Yet another reason to avoid Chrome.
I prefer Firefox, however Waterfox or Floorp are good forks to avoid the AI stuff Mozilla is pushing.

Compatibility: Firefox 144, Firefox ESR 140.4
CCK2 Equivalent: N/A
Preferences Affected: browser.ml.chat.enabled, browser.ml.chat.page, browser.ml.linkPreview.optin, browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled

Windows (GPO)

Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\GenerativeAI\Enabled = 0x1 | 0x0
Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\GenerativeAI\Chatbot = 0x1 | 0x0
Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\GenerativeAI\LinkPreviews = 0x1 | 0x0
Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\GenerativeAI\TabGroups = 0x1 | 0x0
Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox\GenerativeAI\Locked = 0x1 | 0x0

 

[OortCloud]

Uninstalled Chrome last year after using Brave for a while. Haven't missed it once.

 

[Rapob]

AI is becoming an enemy of the people.

Not if you invested in in, AI made me big money in the last 5 years.
And not for work either, AI makes my job easier. Freeing up headspace.

Do you still "google" stuff? I don't get why some people dislike AI so much, learn to actually use it well, I'd say

AI is not going anywhere, it has just started, still early days. You won't see AI go away from here. It will only improve massively.

 

[acrossthestars]

The downloads carry a notable irony: Chrome's most visible AI feature, the AI mode integrated into the address bar and Google Search, runs on Google's servers rather than the locally stored weights. The 4GB folder is only used for writing assistance and a handful of other features accessible several menus deep.

I don't know what's worse: the fact that Google is forcing all LLM-capable computers running Chrome to download a 4GB database of weights that don't even get used for local AI queries, or the fact that "writing assistance and a handful of other features" needs access to a 4GB database of weights, just to be a worse form of Siri.

You'd think that, based on the law of averages and all of the money being thrown at AI, Google would accidentally make a good decision at least some of the time, but...no. The bumbling idi*ts calling themselves CEOs, of Fortune 500 companies, aren't that level of incompetent. They aren't "sometimes" stupid, they are "all of the way" stupid.

It's almost as if it's on purpose...

 

[jbright]

The part that should bother people more than it does: the 4GB folder isn't even powering the AI feature most users actually see. The address bar AI mode runs on Google's servers. You silently lost 4GB of disk space to run writing assistance buried three menus deep that you've probably never touched. That's an extraordinary tradeoff that nobody agreed to.

 

[yannus]

Using Firefox and Librewolf on Linux, the only way to get rid of evil is to get rid of evil.

 

[RudyBob]

I haven't used Chrome since 2023.
All my PCs (2 for kids, 1 for me), 2 smartphones all use Brave or Safari.

The PCs I've built for my friends also I've installed with Brave.
Work flawlessly and they like it now that they don't have to watch ads every time they browse youtube video.

Brave is good but hardly flawless. I find a few issues with pages not loading and constantly being made to use two step verification on other sites and being asked to find all the bicycles on others which doesn't work so I have to find all the bridges and then that don't work. It may not be Brave that has the problem but it is Brave that has the problem. I use Brave most of the time

 

[bclaymiles]

"between 6,000 and 60,000 metric tons of CO2."

Oooooo we need spooky noises and waving of hands, evil bad evil bad!

Now tell us how many metric tons of CO2 are generated by the entire internet as a whole each day, then we'll have something to compare it to.

I'd bet folding money this value is so small it wouldn't even register on any readable graph.

That said, I'm happy to do my part and finally delete Chrome from my PC. It's used only once or twice I year only for the most recalcitrant websites that refuse to code for other browsers; If it's needed again, ever, I'll just download and install it, use it for that single purpose, and purge it from my system again.

 

[Axiarus]

I haven't used Chrome since 2023.
All my PCs (2 for kids, 1 for me), 2 smartphones all use Brave or Safari.

The PCs I've built for my friends also I've installed with Brave.
Work flawlessly and they like it now that they don't have to watch ads every time they browse youtube video.

Nah, F Brave.

 

[Axiarus]

For yall using Brave.

In 2016, Brave promised to remove banner ads from websites and replace
them with their own, basically trying to extract money directly from
websites without the consent of their owners

In 2016, CEO Brendan Eich unilaterally added a fringe, pay-to-win
Wikipedia clone into the default search engine list.

In 2017, they terminated the alternative browser Link Bubble, which they
had bought earlier.

In 2018, Tom Scott and other creators noticed Brave was soliciting
donations in their names without their knowledge or consent.

In 2019, Brave taunted Firefox users who visited their homepage.

In 2020, Brave got caught injecting URLs with affiliate codes when users
tried browsing to various websites.

In 2020, they silently started injecting ads into their home page
backgrounds, pocketing the revenue. There was a lot of pushback: "the
sponsored backgrounds give a bad first impression."

In 2021, Brave's TOR window was found leaking DNS queries, and a patch
was only widely deployed after articles called them out.

In 2022, Brave floated the idea of further discouraging users from
disabling sponsored messages.

In 2023, Brave got caught installing a paid VPN service on users'
computers without their consent.

In 2023, Brave got caught scraping and reselling people's data with
their custom web crawler, which was designed specifically not to
announce itself to website owners.

In 2024, Brave gave up on providing advanced fingerprint protection,
citing flawed statistics (people who would enable the protection would
likely disable Brave telemetry).

In 2025, Brave staff publish an article endorsing PrivacyTests and say
they "work with legitimate testing sites" like them. This article fails
to disclose PrivacyTests is run by a Brave Senior Architect.

In 2025, Brave taunted people searching for Firefox on the Google Play
Store. (The VP denied this occurred, but also demonstrated ignorance of
multiple different screenshots.)

In 2026, Brave releases a non bloated version called Origin, costs $60
with only 10 activations on Windows/macOS, but is completely free on
Linux. To gain market share and encourage major distros to replace
Firefox as default.