The world's most popular browser, Google's own Chrome, is now automatically downloading a huge additional file to every computer it's installed on.
The four-gigabyte weights.bin file automatically downloads to the computer and places itself in the same directory path where Chrome is installed.
This file is essentially the weight file for Gemini Nano, Google's own AI's local model, which tells the local AI model how it should function and what it can do.
So, in simple terms: a local Google AI model, running on the user's computer, is downloaded to (almost) every single computer with the Chrome browser installed.
It should be noted in this context that almost all: if the computer is too slow, has too little memory, or is otherwise incompatible with Gemini Nano, the local AI model will not be downloaded.
The issue was first noticed by The Privacy Guy, who wrote about it on his blog after first figuring out what was going on.
Chrome will henceforth use local AI to perform the browser's AI functions, such as suggesting what to write on social media or which tabs should be grouped together.
In Hacker News discussions, the massive size of the local AI is causing the most alarm - combined with the fact that Chrome has over a billion users.
In a medium-sized company with a thousand employees alone, the AI model forcibly downloaded to each machine consumes almost four terabytes of storage space. On a global scale, we are talking about staggering figures.
The local language model will be directly integrated into Chrome in the next release (Chrome 148) with the upcoming Prompt API, which will allow websites or browser extensions to use the local AI on the user's computer.
This 4 GB AI file would not be a mandatory part of Chrome in any way; instead, the browser could ask the user for permission to download the files required by the local AI if the user wishes to use those functions.
However, Google decided that asking would create too much friction for adoption - and downloaded the models to all users without asking anything. Manually deleting the file is useless, as Chrome will download it again if it's removed.
The local language model can be blocked with these instructions, if you know what you're doing and dive directly into Chrome's deeper settings. However, we do not recommend this for ordinary basic users.
So, if you were wondering how appx. four gigabytes of storage recently "disappeared" from your computer: your browser is likely the reason.
This file is essentially the weight file for Gemini Nano, Google's own AI's local model, which tells the local AI model how it should function and what it can do.
So, in simple terms: a local Google AI model, running on the user's computer, is downloaded to (almost) every single computer with the Chrome browser installed.
It should be noted in this context that almost all: if the computer is too slow, has too little memory, or is otherwise incompatible with Gemini Nano, the local AI model will not be downloaded.
The issue was first noticed by The Privacy Guy, who wrote about it on his blog after first figuring out what was going on.
Chrome will henceforth use local AI to perform the browser's AI functions, such as suggesting what to write on social media or which tabs should be grouped together.
In Hacker News discussions, the massive size of the local AI is causing the most alarm - combined with the fact that Chrome has over a billion users.
In a medium-sized company with a thousand employees alone, the AI model forcibly downloaded to each machine consumes almost four terabytes of storage space. On a global scale, we are talking about staggering figures.
The local language model will be directly integrated into Chrome in the next release (Chrome 148) with the upcoming Prompt API, which will allow websites or browser extensions to use the local AI on the user's computer.
This 4 GB AI file would not be a mandatory part of Chrome in any way; instead, the browser could ask the user for permission to download the files required by the local AI if the user wishes to use those functions.
However, Google decided that asking would create too much friction for adoption - and downloaded the models to all users without asking anything. Manually deleting the file is useless, as Chrome will download it again if it's removed.
The local language model can be blocked with these instructions, if you know what you're doing and dive directly into Chrome's deeper settings. However, we do not recommend this for ordinary basic users.
So, if you were wondering how appx. four gigabytes of storage recently "disappeared" from your computer: your browser is likely the reason.
