Google in Hot Water Again: Gemini Nano Installs Without PC Owner's Consent via Chrome and Causes Issues
Windows users have discovered that the Google Chrome browser automatically downloads a 4-gigabyte file named weights.bin to the system drive without explicit consent. This is the local AI model Gemini Nano, which is used for built-in API functions and is stored in the AppData folder.
To delete the file, you need to access Chrome's experimental settings (chrome://flags), disable the "Optimization Guide on Device Model" and "Prompt API" parameters, and then manually delete weights.bin located at AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\OptGuideOnDeviceModel. To prevent the model from downloading again, it is recommended to create an empty file with the "read-only" attribute in its place.
The issue only affects the Chrome browser—users of Firefox, Brave, and Edge are not affected. To analyze disk space, you can use the WinDirStat utility.