If you are running Google Chrome on Windows and wish to disable the illicitly downloaded 4 GByte AI model, here are the steps to go though:
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If you are running Google Chrome on Windows and wish to disable the illicitly downloaded 4 GByte AI model, here are the steps to go though:
- Disable AI Features (Prevention)
Deleting the file (weights.bin) is often ineffective as Chrome will automatically re-download it upon relaunch unless the associated AI features are disabled.
Standard Settings: In Chrome, Go to Settings > System and toggle off On-device GenAI (or "On-device AI") Experimental Flags:
Enter chrome://flags in your Chrome address bar and disable the following:
#optimization-guide-on-device-model
#prompt-api-for-gemini-nano- Delete Local AI Model Files (Clean-up)
After disabling the flags, you can manually delete the storage-heavy folder to reclaim space (roughly 4GB).
Press Win + R and paste:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Open your profile folder (usually named Default).
Find and delete the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder.
As an experiment I have deleted just the existing weights.bin file and re-created a read-only 0 byte version. I can then monitor this to see if it's changed in the future.
Hopefully this will disable these illicit AI features and prevent it from being re-enabled in future.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
