My 2020 M1 MacBook Air nonetheless runs effectively, however conserving laborious drive area as years of recordsdata, media, and software program accumulate is a continuous problem. So I used to be miffed after I learn safety researcher Alexander Hanff’s May 4 report that Google Chrome has been mechanically downloading an over-4GB AI mannequin referred to as Gemini Nano onto everybody’s laptop, with out asking for consent or offering notification. Chrome will not be my essential browser (I’m a Firefox diehard), and Gemini will not be my essential AI (that may be Claude). I’m paying a hefty hard-drive tax for one thing I don’t use.
Merely deleting the file, referred to as weights.bin, is ineffective. Chrome simply downloads it once more. And a lot of the recommendation on tips on how to get round that doesn’t work—at the least in my in depth testing.
Loads of what I focus on right here applies to each Macs and PCs, however the techiest recommendation is for Macs, as that’s the place it’s been most studied and the place I used to be finest in a position to check it.
Google added Gemini Nano in model 126 of Chrome, launched in June 2024. However Hanff’s in depth forensic reporting of the way it operates on a Mac introduced the problem middle stage this week, spawning a raft of tech recommendation articles. In response, Google issued a brief assertion saying that, actually, there’s a easy toggle in Chrome to disable and take away Gemini Nano.
None of that recommendation may very well work in your system.
Gemini Nano is designed to hurry up in-browser AI options akin to bettering writing and enhancing by working jobs in your laptop, relatively than sending your knowledge to Google’s cloud. Chances are you’ll discover this convenient, and be comfortable to maintain Gemini Nano put in. However should you do wish to ditch it, you could have to take extra difficult steps than what Google and the press have been telling you.
What didn’t work
An announcement Google despatched to me and the remainder of the media, reads, partially:
“In February, we started rolling out the flexibility for customers to simply flip off and take away the mannequin instantly in Chrome settings. As soon as disabled, the mannequin will now not obtain or replace. Extra particulars in our help center article.”
It took almost two years for Google to begin “rolling out” the kill change, and it seems to be a sluggish roll. I’ve examined the newest model of Chrome (V 148) in two installations on macOS 26 and one on Home windows 11. Solely the Home windows model has the brand new toggle, referred to as “On-device AI.” This does disable and take away the mannequin.
As for my Mac, a Google spokesperson declined to say something past the assertion or provide a way of after I would possibly get the improve. I’m not alone. Some tech journalists who picked up the story did not have it. Now the web is buzzing with work-arounds for eradicating Gemini Nano that don’t truly work—at the least not on my two macOS setups.
The recommendation being circulated facilities round Chrome “flags” that flip options on or off. You may get there by typing “chrome://flags” within the browser’s tackle bar. The widespread recommendation is to seek for and choose “Disabled” for a function referred to as:
“Allows optimization information on machine
Allows the optimization information to execute fashions on machine. – Mac, Home windows, Linux, ChromeOS”
I made that change and likewise disabled flags for the six Gemini Nano companies (together with assist for writing, rewriting, proofing, and summarizing textual content). However a contemporary Gemini Nano shortly appeared.
What does work: a step-by-step information
When you don’t like the thought of Google claiming over 4GB of disk area, listed here are the steps, so as of complexity, to treatment the problem. (Google’s assertion does say that “the mannequin will mechanically uninstall if the machine is low on sources,” with out offering extra particulars.)
Step 1. See if in case you have the toggle
Begin by searching for the toggle in Chrome by clicking Settings > System or typing “chrome://settings/system” into the tackle bar. When you see “On-device AI,” merely toggle it off and restart Chrome. (Step 3 reveals tips on how to verify that it labored.)
When you don’t have the function, test that Chrome is updated. Go to Settings > About Chrome, or kind “chrome://settings/assist.” If the web page says that “Chrome is updated,” you’ve finished all you possibly can. Chrome will possible be on an iteration of Model 148, akin to “148.0.7778.97 (Official Construct).”
Step 2. Again up your laptop
From right here onward, you’ll be digging into your working system, the place a incorrect step may trigger issues to interrupt. First, make a full-system backup with software program akin to Apple’s Time Machine.
Step 3. Search for Gemini Nano in your disk
Whether or not or not you have got the AI toggle in Chrome, you need to look to see if the recordsdata are in your disk.
On Macs, open a Finder window by clicking Cmd + N from the desktop, and press Cmd + Shift + . (the interval character) to disclose hidden system recordsdata. Then navigate to Customers > [your user name] > Library > Utility Help > Google. Proper-click the “Chrome” folder, choose “Make Alias,” and drag the alias to your desktop so you may get again to it shortly later. Then click on the unique “Chrome” folder to see what’s inside.
On PCs, in File Explorer, go to Native Disk > This PC > [your user name] > AppData > Google > Chrome. Proper-click “Chrome” and choose Present extra choices > Create shortcut, and drag the shortcut to the desktop. Then click on Chrome > Person Information.
On both system, search for a folder referred to as OptGuideOnDeviceModel. Double-clicking will most likely convey you to a folder with a quantity akin to “2025.8.8.1141.” Inside that, you can find a number of recordsdata, together with weights.bin—the 4GB+ AI mannequin that makes up a lot of the bundle.
Step 4. Assess the scenario
If the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder will not be current or is empty, it might be since you do have the toggle in Chrome, and it’s working. Or your system is just too previous to run Gemini Nano. However click on that desktop shortcut periodically to see if something adjustments.
If Gemini Nano is there, and also you aren’t comfy digging into your macOS or Home windows innards, think about different choices: Delete Chrome if eradicating Gemini Nano is extra necessary to you than utilizing the browser, or simply stay with Gemini Nano if it’s not. Ultimately, you need to get the toggle to take away the AI mannequin.
In case you are prepared to tinker, I’ll stroll you thru the method for macOS, the place there could also be extra want primarily based on my casual polling, and the place I used to be in a position to totally check. It’s additionally less complicated.
Step 5. Power Chrome to cease re-downloading Gemini Nano
If Chrome doesn’t but provide the choice to take away the mannequin, you’ll should manually delete it, then set macOS to cease Chrome from downloading Gemini Nano once more. This requires copying and pasting a single line of directions into the again finish of macOS.
Stop Chrome, then launch the Terminal app by clicking Functions > Utilities > Terminal. You’ll see a black display with plain white textual content (or presumably the inverse). The final line will embody your username and a immediate. Mine appears to be like like “seancaptain@Seans-Air ~ %.”
Copy this precise line, paste it into Terminal, and press Return:
defaults write com.google.Chrome GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings -int 1
That “-int 1” half mainly says “Don’t set up Gemini Nano.”
This would possibly look scary, however should you kind one thing incorrect, Terminal will possible simply reject it and offer you an error message. If it really works, Terminal received’t present something. No information is nice information
Warning: Theoretically, you could possibly restore Gemini Nano by coming into a barely totally different command (defaults delete com.google.Chrome GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings). Nevertheless, that didn’t convey it again for me in a number of exams, on a number of methods, over a number of hours. So Gemini Nano could also be gone indefinitely should you take this step. (Or restore from backup should you really feel regret.)
Step 6. Delete Gemini Nano
Click on your desktop shortcut to the Chrome folder, then drag the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder into the Trash and empty the Trash. However depart the Chrome folder open so you possibly can control it.
Step 7. See if it labored
Launch the Chrome app. Then click on your desktop shortcut to the Chrome folder and watch to see if the OptGuideOnDeviceModel seems. If it’s nonetheless absent after an hour or so of utilizing Chrome, the method works. If it does reappear, repeat Steps 3 and 4.
This course of ought to finally stick. However because it goes past common client tech operations, there could also be quirks to your system that solely a professional or refined person may diagnose. Fortuitously, you made that system backup, proper?
Why ought to we’ve got to do that?
Google’s quiet bundling of Gemini Nano and sluggish rollout of how to do away with it appear to have hit a nerve. Tech, particularly AI, is transferring quicker than most anybody can hope to maintain up with. Feelings run from worry (Will I lose my job? Are they spying on me?) to excessive annoyance (What are all these rattling pop-ups providing to suppose for me?). These newest anxieties come atop years of distrust primarily based on tech corporations gathering knowledge they stated they didn’t, utilizing it in methods they stated they wouldn’t, and shedding it to hackers in methods they stated they couldn’t. All that frustration landed with a whopping 4GB thud this week.
Hanff was not a dispassionate reporter of this phenomenon. “You reached in to my machine, modified a configuration (the Chrome profile flags), and gave your self permission to put in one thing I didn’t authorize,” he wrote in a follow-up post on May 7. (I exchanged some emails with Hanff on technical elements of the Gemini Nano set up and elimination.) Each of his posts cite legal guidelines that he believes Google has violated by doing this, together with the European ePrivacy Directive, the EU and UK Normal Information Safety Rules, the California Client Privateness Act, and Chapter 9 of the Maltese Felony Code. Hanff additionally makes a strident ecological argument, calculating a price in further CO2 emissions of pushing out the software program starting from 6,000 to 60,000 metric tons (tonnes). I haven’t checked his math, however he publishes an in depth methodology.
There could also be a protracted debate on the harms or advantages of the mass Gemini Nano deployment. However the scale in itself is noteworthy. An enormous firm, with a large person base, put out a large improve with comparatively tiny clarification and, till lately, no option to undo it. It might be referred to as “Nano,” however this obtain is inflicting massive complications.
