As of 2026, Google maintains an iron grip on the web browser market, boasting well over three billion Chrome users worldwide.
That means even small changes or interruptions can have a significant impact. As security researcher Alexander “The Privacy Guy” Hanff noted in a blog post earlier this week, Google’s web browser has been “silently” installing an AI model on users’ devices without asking for consent.
Hanff discovered a four-gigabyte file named “weights.bin,” in a directory called “OptGuideOnDeviceModel.” The file contains weights — the learned numerical parameters of an AI model that teach it how to weigh the importance of various data points — of Google’s Gemini Nano, which is designed to live on users’ devices, not the cloud.
“Chrome did not ask,” Hanff wrote. “Chrome does not surface it. If the user deletes it, Chrome re-downloads it.”
Plenty of questions remain over the implications of the download or how it affects the performance of users’ devices beyond taking up a hefty amount of storage. But considering the lack of transparency — and massively growing AI backlash — it’s certainly not a good look.
Google has remained unusually silent on the matter, and has yet to publicly address it. The company didn’t respond to Futurism‘s request for comment.
Hanff argued that given the browser’s billions of users, deploying the AI model could release “between six thousand and sixty thousand tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, depending on how many devices receive the push.”
Netizens, who have long grown wary of having AI pushed on them without their consent, were appalled.
“AI/Climate aside, my real issue is that Google installs anything without my consent no matter the size,” one Reddit user wrote. “Thankfully I don’t use Chrome, it’s Firefox for me.”
Others argued that Google was likely auto-installing the model to artificially inflate its own AI user stats.
“All of this only so they can show the market that people really are ‘using’ their AI crap,” one user wrote.
“AI is so s*** that companies have to force it down people’s throats,” another argued. “They know nobody asked for this.”
“There were few things Google could do to force users off of Chrome faster than this,” yet another seethed.
As laid out in his blog post, Hanff found that the download of the file is triggered when the browser’s default AI features are active.
“On any machine that meets the hardware requirements, Chrome treats the user’s hardware as a delivery target and writes the model,” he wrote.
To stop it from re-installing itself after deleting it, Hanff advised to disable AI features manually by digging into the browser’s settings.
“That is the true definition of malware,” one X user charged.
Beyond environmental concerns, Hanff argued that Google’s apparent overreach could be in “direct breach” of European Union data privacy regulations, including General Data Protection Regulation, a comprehensive set of laws that went into effect in 2018.
Google’s Chrome isn’t the only web browser that’s landed in hot water after AI features came to light. Following a massive outcry among its users, browser company Mozilla promised a “kill switch” in Firefox that turns off all recently announced AI features.
Luckily, plenty of other alternatives exist. For instance, competing browser company Vivaldi has taken a refreshingly different approach. In an August blog post, CEO Jon von Tetzchner vowed to take a stand, “choosing humans over hype.”
“We will continue building a browser for curious minds, power users, researchers, and anyone who values autonomy,” he wrote at the time. “If AI contributes to that goal without stealing intellectual property, compromising privacy or the open web, we will use it. If it turns people into passive consumers, we will not.”
More on Google: Analysis Finds That Google’s AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization
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