WEIGHTS.BIN

Google chrome users may have gotten more than they bargained for. A 4GB ai system, Gemini Nano. Look for it. If you don't want it, disable it in the settings. Maybe even delete chrome and find something else to work with. Here are some directions and a link to an article. I had chrome downloaded for one website that would only work with it. I turned everything off, deleted chrome, deleted anything google related, burned the ashes, and salted the earth behind me. Very dramatic.

Even if you aren’t using Google Gemini, it might be using your device. Security researcher Alexander Hanff, also known as “That Privacy Guy,” recently reported that Google’s widely used Chrome web browser is quietly storing an on-device AI model without explicitly asking for user permission.

According to Hanff, Chrome secretly stashes about 4GB of AI model files on Chrome users’ devices (though it should be noted that many users have been unable to find the file). The reported model is stored in a folder called OptGuideOnDeviceModel. The largest part of that folder is a file called weights.bin. Hanff claims that the weights are for Gemini Nano, Google’s lighter-weight, on-device version of its large language model.

So, now that you've been made aware of this, are you going to take any action? Does it bother you? Will you keep using chrome anyway? Ungoogled chrome should be fine, right? I still need to use that one site.