Google Chrome May Be Installing an AI Model on Your Device Without You Knowing
You may not have requested the AI model on your computer, but you may have received it anyway. Google Chrome has been installing the 4GB model on devices without asking or notifying users.
Google has been installing Gemini Nano — an AI model that runs on devices like smartphones and laptops instead of in the cloud — in other people’s Chrome browsers, without their permission, according to Alexander Hanff, a Swedish computer scientist and lawyer known as That Privacy Guy. And Google doesn’t tell you it’s on your device after it’s installed.
Hanff said the Gemini Nano will only be installed if a person’s device meets the hardware requirements. It is not known how many people have received coverage.
Gemini Nano performs tasks such as detecting scam phone calls, helping you write text messages, extracting recordings and analyzing screenshots of a Pixel phone. Not to be confused with the AI Mode pill in the address bar. When you use AI Mode, your questions are forwarded to the Google Gemini servers — not to the Gemini Nano.
A Google spokesperson told CNET that the Gemini Nano will automatically boot if the device does not have enough resources, such as processing power, RAM memory, storage space or network bandwidth.
“In February, we began rolling out the ability for users to easily disable and remove a model directly from Chrome’s settings,” a spokesperson said. “If disabled, the model will no longer download or update.”
Google provides more information about generative AI models in Chrome on this web page.
If you use Chrome, you probably have a Gemini Nano. Go to your file manager — “File Explorer” for Windows, “Files” for Chromebooks, “Finder” for Macs — and search for a folder called “OptGuideOnDeviceModel.” In that folder, there will be a file called “weights.bin,” and that’s where the Gemini Nano resides.
Hanff said Chrome users wouldn’t know they had a Gemini Nano unless they searched for it, because “Chrome didn’t ask” and “Chrome doesn’t show up.”
If you want to remove Gemini Nano, there are several ways. Another is to uninstall Chrome entirely. Another way is to type “chrome://flags” in your browser’s address bar, then find “Enable configuration guide on device” and turn it off.
Why does it matter?
Hanff said the push may be aimed at helping Google cut costs by moving AI work off its servers and onto your computer.
“Using users’ hardware allows them to push ‘AI features’ without computational overhead,” Hanff told CNET.
But Hanff suggested there could be legal consequences, at least in Europe. He suggested that the inclusion of the Gemini Nano could create a breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation principles of lawfulness, impartiality and transparency. Hanff said that, given the potential environmental impacts, Google should have declared it under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
“Google has given us every reason to distrust them with a two-decade history of massive global privacy breaches,” Hanff told CNET. “So, I suspect they felt that asking for permission (required by law) would interfere with their ability to push this model, and, whatever comes after it.”
