If you are using Google’s Chrome browser for desktop, maybe there is a Gemini Nano AI prototype it’s running on your computer right now and takes up about 4 GB of space. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn’t know about it and don’t want to, there’s a way to turn it off.
The file started downloading automatically for Chrome users in 2024 after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser. But report and That Privacy Guy this week and the reception that followed showed just how ignorant many consumers were—perhaps the result of a deluge of AI services and features in the tech industry that have become difficult for consumers to keep up with.
To uninstall the Gemini Nano file, open Chrome on your computer, in the upper right corner click “More” menu represented by three vertical dotsthen go to Settings, The systemand then turn “AI on the device” be away The Privacy Guy article noted that if you unzip the Gemini Nano file directly into the directory, Chrome will automatically reload it when the browser is restarted.
A Google spokesperson tells WIRED that the company began rolling out an On-device AI toggle in February so that users can selectively turn off features and remove the design. “Once disabled, the model will no longer download or update,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The company also added that the system is designed so that the Gemini Nano “will automatically shut down if the device is low on resources.”
Google built the feature into Chrome to enable AI fraud detection features on the device. It also aimed to provide a way for software developers to integrate AI-related software interfaces while storing data on users’ devices where possible and outside the cloud. These features are different from Chrome’s AI modewhich does not support the internal model of Gemini Nano.
Parisa Tabriz, general manager of Chrome, emphasized in a post at X on Wednesday that including Gemini Nano “enhances key security capabilities like on-device fraud detection and developer APIs without sending your data to the cloud.”
Google certainly did announce Gemini Nano integration in Chrome and discussed that in public, but for users who use Chrome casually because it’s the world’s largest, most recognized browser and don’t have to follow every granular update, the lack of in-your-face notification about a large AI design file sitting and working on your computer can be annoying.
Longtime security and compliance consultant Davi Ottenheimer says that he follows Chrome updates closely but could have easily missed the Gemini Nano integration. “An example of a device could be a hidden minefield,” he says. And the fact that Google launched the integration in 2024 but didn’t start offering a settings manager for users to turn it off until February shows that, at least initially, the feature wasn’t thought of as something users would interact with.
Just because you you can removing Gemini Nano from Chrome doesn’t mean you have to—or that doing so is better for your privacy.
Local processing is a more private way to use the power of AI. If you remove the model, the features Google uses—including AI-powered fraud detection—will stop working. But since Gemini Nano is also used by Chrome to enable internal AI processing for third-party developers, blocking this method can have various consequences when interacting with non-Google web services in the browser. A Google spokesperson tells WIRED that if you disable AI on a device, “certain security features will not be available, and websites that use the device’s APIs will work differently.”
Of course, if neither option seems right, there is always an alternative: Use a different browser.
