According to the report, this change is taking place in the background, and it appears to be related to the activation of some Gemini features within Chrome, such as the “Help me write” feature, in addition to other tools that work with artificial intelligence on the device itself, including the fraud detection feature. The report indicated that Google had originally announced the arrival of Gemini Nano to Chrome in 2024.
The site explained that the storage space occupied by the model can be found within the “weights.bin” file in a path called “OptGuideOnDeviceModel,” while Google confirms on a page dedicated to developers that Chrome downloads the Gemini Nano model according to the device’s capabilities, with its updates being subsequently managed automatically in the background.
The report pointed out that Google says that Chrome actively manages storage space, and that the Gemini Nano model is the first to be automatically deleted if the free space on the device drops below a certain limit.
He also pointed out that deleting the file manually is possible, but Chrome will re-download it unless the user disables the “on-device AI” option from the settings under Settings > System, noting that access to this option was not available in one of the experiments on a MacBook running Chrome v147.
The report concluded by pointing out a remarkable paradox, as Google’s own documentation on artificial intelligence in Chrome advises developers to alert users to the time required to perform such downloads, while the company did not issue a direct comment on the recent criticism related to Chrome’s consumption of storage space due to local artificial intelligence models.
