- The claim that Google Chrome installed a 4-gigabyte artificial intelligence model on users' devices without their consent, and that the model reinstalls itself when deleted, was mostly true.
- We found the model, Google Gemini Nano, present on the computer of two Snopes employees who use Chrome on MacOS and one who uses Chrome on Windows. The 4-gigabyte file, called "weights.bin," was located in a folder called "OptGuideOnDeviceModel," in Google Chrome's user data folder. The exact file path of the folder changes depending on the computer's operating system.
- Our research and testing revealed that the model is not present on all computers. Additionally, according to information on Google Chrome's developer pages, the model is not installed on mobile devices due to compatibility issues.
- Users online claimed that the "weights.bin" file would be re-downloaded if users deleted it directly. Snopes had not verified this claim.
- In February 2026, according to Google's statement to Snopes, the company "began rolling out the ability for users to easily turn off and remove the model directly in Chrome settings." This setting may not be available for all users.
- All Snopes employees were able to remove the files their devices using that opt-out option. As of this writing, the files remained deleted. We're monitoring these devices and will update this story if the files reappear.
On May 4, 2026,
The claim rapidly spread across social media sites, including Reddit, Threads and X. Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the claim was true.
We found the claim to be mostly true, but with one key caveat — the model is not present on all devices. We found direct evidence of the AI model on half of the devices we checked, and on both MacOS and Windows machines.
We contacted both Google and Hanff as part of researching this story. The company provided the following statement, while Hanff's responses will be detailed below:
We've offered Gemini Nano for Chrome since 2024 as a lightweight, on-device model. It powers important security capabilities like scam detection and developer APIs without sending your data to the cloud. While this requires some local space on the desktop to run, the model will automatically uninstall if the device is low on resources. In February, we began rolling out the ability for users to easily turn off and remove the model directly in Chrome settings. Once disabled the model will no longer download or update. More details in our help center article.
The model, called Gemini Nano, is used for a few different AI features in Chrome, such as the "Help me write" and on-device scam detection, according to Hanff. Information from Google Chrome's developer pages revealed that it's installed only if a computer meets certain technical specifications, and may not download if the user does not have adequate storage space. Furthermore, it's not compatible with mobile devices.
Hanff found that Gemini Nano is stored in a roughly 4-gigabyte file called "weights.bin," located inside a folder called "OptGuideOnDeviceModel," which itself is located inside Google Chrome's user data folder.
Multiple social media and blog posts, both pre- and post-February 2026, separately documented the "weights.bin" file and claimed that Chrome would just re-downloaed the file if a user deleted it.
Hanff verified the model's existence by creating a fresh installation of Chrome on a Mac, running a program that automatically visited 100 webpages with no human input, then just watching the computer's log files for evidence of the download. In an email response to Snopes, Hanff said he does not own a Windows computer because of privacy concerns, and could therefore not confirm that the model was present on Windows machines.
Snopes asked six staffers who use Chrome, four on MacOS and two on Windows, to check whether the model was on their machines. Two staffers who use a Mac and one staffer who uses Windows found a file called "weights.bin" matching Hanff's description.
(Snopes staff)
So — how do you know if the file is on your computer? What if you don't want it there?
First, open Chrome and go to the page chrome://on-device-internals. It will likely inform you that debugging tools are not enabled, but you can easily change that by clicking the link provided on that page, and then clicking the box labeled "Enable internal debugging pages."
That should take you to a page that looks something like this:
(Snopes staff)
Click on the "Model Status" tab.
If the Foundational Model State reads "No On-Device Feature Used," as shown below, the model is not currently installed on your computer — you're done.
(Snopes staff)
If that's not the case (like below, for instance), the model is installed on your computer.
(Snopes staff)
All of Snopes' staffers who had the model on their computer were able to access this option and turn it off, which immediately deleted the files containing the
Hanff's article did not mention this setting, and he confirmed that he did not have access to it in his email response to Snopes. Hanff said he was able to remove the file by navigating to the chrome://flags page and manually disabling Chrome's AI features, including the "optimization-guide-on-device-model" flag, though Snopes could not confirm that this method worked.
In his article, Hanff said he believed Google's actions were illegal under European digital privacy laws, which require companies to give consumers the choice to opt in to data collection, not opt out. "I fully intend to file criminal charges against Google for this," he told Snopes via email.