Lance Whitney/ZDNET
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Google is downloading a 4GB file to the PCs of many Chrome users.
The file is harmless and is used for the Gemini Nano on-device LLM.
You'll see it if you've opted into the on-device AI setting in Chrome.
Google is silently saving a Chrome-related file to many computers. That's nothing earth-shaking. But this file is a hefty 4GB in size, which has caught the attention of some Google watchers. What is the file, why is it being installed, and how can you check for it?
Also: I let Chrome's AI agent shop, research, and email for me - here's how it went
In a new blog post, computer scientist Alexander Hanff, aka the Privacy Guy, pulled back the curtain on this mysterious file. Named weights.bin, the file is being downloaded deep within the user data folder on many computers of Chrome users. The file itself is related to Gemini Nano, which Google is using as the on-device AI model for Chrome.
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