How to Disable Google’s Gemini in Chrome
If you use the Google Chrome browser for your desktop, there might be a tiny AI model named Gemini Nano running on your computer. This file started downloading for Chrome users in 2024 after Google integrated it into the browser and now takes up about 4 GB of space. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you didn’t know about it and don’t want it, there’s a way to turn it off.
What It Means for Makers and Artists
To uninstall the Gemini Nano file, open Chrome on your computer. In the top right corner, click the “More” menu represented by three vertical dots, then go to Settings, System, and toggle “On-device AI” off. The Privacy Guy report highlighted how many users were unaware of this feature—perhaps a result of the tech industry’s flood of AI services and features that have been difficult for users to keep up with.
A Google spokesperson tells Wired that the company started rolling out the On-device AI toggle in February so users can turn off these features if they choose, and remove the model. “Once disabled, the model will no longer download or update,” the spokesperson says in a statement. The company also added that the system is designed to automatically uninstall Gemini Nano if your device is low on resources.
Google built Gemini Nano into Chrome to enable important security capabilities like on-device scam detection and developer APIs while keeping data on users’ devices when possible and out of the cloud. These features are separate from Chrome’s AI Mode, which does not use the local Gemini Nano model.
Parisa Tabriz, Chrome’s general manager, emphasized in a post on X that integrating Gemini Nano “powers important security capabilities like on-device scam detection and developer APIs without sending your data to the cloud.”
Google did announce the Gemini Nano integration into Chrome and discussed it publicly. However, for users who simply use Chrome because of its popularity and don’t necessarily follow every granular update, the lack of an in-your-face notification about a large AI model file sitting and running on your computer might be upsetting.
Hidden Minefield
Longtime security and compliance consultant Davi Ottenheimer says that he follows Chrome updates closely but could have easily missed the Gemini Nano integration. “An on-device model could be a hidden minefield,” he says. And the fact that Google launched this feature in 2024 but didn’t start rolling out a settings control for users to turn it off until February shows that, at least initially, the feature wasn’t conceived as something that users would interact with.
Local Processing vs. Gemini Nano
To remove Gemini Nano from Chrome doesn’t necessarily mean you should—or that doing so is better for your privacy. Local processing is a more private way to utilize AI capabilities. If you disable the model, the features Google uses it for—including the AI-enabled scam detection—will cease to function. But since Gemini Nano also enables local AI processing for third-party developers, blocking this route could have various outcomes when interacting with non-Google web services in the browser.
A Google spokesperson tells Wired that if you turn off On-device AI, “certain security features will not be available, and sites that use the on device APIs will behave differently.”
Of course, if neither option seems right, there’s always an alternative: Use a different browser.
Key Takeaways
- The Gemini Nano AI model started downloading for Chrome users in 2024 and takes up about 4 GB of space.
- To disable the Gemini Nano file, toggle “On-device AI” off in Chrome settings.
- Local processing is a more private way to utilize AI capabilities compared to using the local Gemini Nano model.
Originally published at wired.com. Curated by AI Maestro.
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