If you operate Google Chrome desktop browser. Your computer is probably currently running the Gemini Nano AI model, which takes up approximately 4 GB of space. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn’t know about it and don’t want it, there is a way to turn it off.
The file started automatically downloading for Chrome users in 2024, after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser. But report published this week by That Privacy Guy and the subsequent reception highlighted the obliviousness of many users – perhaps as a result of the deluge of artificial intelligence services and features in the tech industry that users found arduous to keep up with.
To uninstall the Gemini Nano file, open the Chrome browser on your computer, in the upper right corner click “More” menu represented by three vertical dotsthen go to Settings, Systemand then switch “Artificial Intelligence on Device” go off. The Privacy Guy article notes that if you directly uninstall the Gemini Nano file from the directory, Chrome will silently automatically re-download it the next time you launch the browser.
A Google spokesperson tells WIRED that the company began rolling out an AI toggle on the device in February so that users can disable these features if they select and delete a model. “Once disabled, the model will no longer be downloaded or updated,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The company also added that the system is designed in such a way that Gemini Nano “will uninstall automatically if the device runs out of resources.”
Google built this model into Chrome to enable AI-powered fraud detection features on your device. It was also intended to allow developers to integrate AI-related application programming interfaces while storing data on users’ devices, outside the cloud if possible. These features are independent of Chrome’s AI mode, which does not operate the local Gemini Nano model.
Parisa Tabriz, CEO of Chrome, highlighted in: post on Wednesday on X that the Gemini Nano integration “provides important security features such as on-device fraud detection and developer APIs without sending data to the cloud.”
Google certainly did that announce Gemini Nano integration with Chrome and discussed This publicly, but for users who simply operate Chrome because it’s the largest, most recognizable browser in the world and don’t necessarily track every detailed update, the lack of direct notification of a vast AI model file sitting and running on their computer can be annoying.
Longtime security and compliance consultant Davi Ottenheimer says he follows Chrome updates closely, but could have easily missed the Gemini Nano integration. “The model installed on the device can be a hidden minefield,” he says. The fact that Google launched this integration in 2024 but only in February started giving users the option to turn it off shows that, at least initially, the feature wasn’t intended as something users could interact with.
Just because you Power removing Gemini Nano from Chrome doesn’t mean you should necessarily do it — or that it’s better for your privacy.
Local computing is a more private way of leveraging the power of artificial intelligence. If you delete a model, the features Google uses it for – including AI fraud detection – will stop working. However, since Gemini Nano is also used by the Chrome browser to enable local AI processing for third-party developers, blocking this route could have various effects when interacting with non-Google web services in the browser. A Google spokesperson tells WIRED that if you turn off AI on your device, “some security features will not be available and sites that use APIs on your device will behave differently.”
Of course, if neither option seems right, there is always an alternative: operate a different browser.