Post #2020563
2026-05-05 13:00 UTC
Replies (30)
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@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems 2026-05-05 13:28
@atoponce, > nano > 4 GB I'm not going to ask.
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@6al@www.foxyhole.io 2026-05-05 14:35
@atoponce@fosstodon.org it is not really clear to me where the file named "weights.bin" is (eventually) located. Also, which is/are the parameter/s for enabling/disabling this feature. tia.
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@msbellows@c.im 2026-05-05 14:37
@atoponce Okay, so how do we disable all Chrome AI on a Windows box? The article says it can be done, but not how.
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@ryan@bemrose.social 2026-05-05 16:41
@0461fcbecc4c3374439932d6b8f11269ccdb7cc973ad7a50ae362db135a474dd @atoponce Your sarcasm is noted. But it's also misplaced. In the article, the author points out that the obvious AI entry points in the browser (the toolbar AI button and the omnibar) don't even use the local model. They still send your queries to Google. So you've got a ton of wasted bandwidth and storage space, no consent, no user action, no respect for user preferences (eg: deleting the file), and no privacy benefit because they route everything you type through the Google cloud anyway.
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@ryan@bemrose.social 2026-05-05 16:46
@0461fcbecc4c3374439932d6b8f11269ccdb7cc973ad7a50ae362db135a474dd @atoponce I'll allow that it's clickbait (most every tech news article is these days). But how is it misinformation?
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@bontchev@infosec.exchange 2026-05-05 15:12
@atoponce A gigantic rant but no useful, actionable information. Just like the last time. I'm going to ignore this. Who's gonna tell him that Microsoft installs silently Copilot on Windows PCs?
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@ferricoxide@blahaj.zone 2026-05-05 15:59
@atoponce@fosstodon.org On the plus side, looks like it's smaller on Linux: find ~ \ -type f \ -name "weights.bin" 2> /dev/null | \ xargs stat -c '%s' | \ awk '{ sum += $1 } END { printf "%.2f GiB\n", sum / (1024^3) }' 2.67 GiB
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@faduda@mastodon.ie 2026-05-05 16:25
@atoponce So outside of uninstalling Chrome, what's the solution here? And does it affect other Chrone-based browsers?
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@jonfr600@mastodon.social 2026-05-05 17:00
@atoponce I can confirm this on my PC. I am removing Google Chrome now.
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@NatureMC@mastodon.online 2026-05-05 17:19
@atoponce Time for #degoogle and #diday ! #Google
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@W6KME@mastodon.radio 2026-05-05 17:20
@atoponce Seems like an easy fix. "The only ways to make the deletion stick are to disable Chrome's AI features through chrome://flags or enterprise policy tooling that home users do not generally have, or to uninstall Chrome entirely "
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@johnkavs@mastodon.ie 2026-05-05 17:22
@atoponce what about Chromium?
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@n4ch1sm0@mastodon.social 2026-05-05 17:45
@atoponce Just in case someone wasn't already convinced they should dump Google Chrome for fucking good
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@pauldrye@spacey.space 2026-05-05 18:27
@atoponce I've no choice but to use Chrome for work on my self-supplied PC, but I'm currently trying: - Delete weights.bin - Create an empty file with the same name - Set its file attributes to read-only, and system to hopefully make it impossible for Google's weights file to replace it when Chrome tries to redownload it. Fingers crossed. If that doesn't work, I'll see if the hidden attribute works any better than the system attribute.
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@Linux@masto.ai 2026-05-05 18:49
@atoponce Another reason to use Vivaldi web browser. It is the last mainstream web browser to not bundle an AI. @Vivaldi
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@mat@activitypub.mnethome.de 2026-05-05 19:19
@atoponce it's so easy to deactivate it - just uninstall Chrome! You all should have done it long time ago!
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@hal8999@infosec.exchange 2026-05-05 19:50
@atoponce Is this news? It's over a year old. IIRC, it's designed to reduce the amount of data sent off-machine. They were talking about space consumption in Canary release in Feb of 2025 (https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chrome-ai-dev-preview-discuss/c/PhgjQg4IoQk) Looking for all the models that have been downloaded for cache in browser, it's not just limited to one. chrome://on-device-internals/ You can use the Tools tab to 'Load Default' model, then type your prompt in the box below. It's slower than a cloud-based response. Ask 'how to spell "incorriggable" and it takes 2 seconds to spit out: The correct spelling is incorrigible. Takes 10 more seconds to explain each part of the word. Then it crashes. I'd rather handle spell checks on-box than send every word up to a cloud service. But, don't ask it what the range of radio delay is between the earth and the moon. Highest Quality says 2.5 milliseconds, and crashes. Fastest inference says 22 seconds, and crashes. Not usable.
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@tbachner@ruhr.social 2026-05-05 19:51
@atoponce Which OS? Chrome under Linux affected?
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@beemdvp@techhub.social 2026-05-05 20:31
@atoponce AI infra companies cannot seriously get away with pulling shit like this surely
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@toychicken@mastodon.social 2026-05-05 21:54
@atoponce question seems to be why? If the weights are sitting on your machine, but the ai functionality is still calling home... Is this some weird distributed AI alternative to building data centres? Using your users processing downtime to answer Gemini queries _elsewhere_?
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@radhitya@navi.lain.day 2026-05-05 21:56
@atoponce the heck .
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@KennethBousquet@mastodon.social 2026-05-05 23:16
@atoponce@fosstodon.orgMy thoughts on this would be to write a script that installs in MBR, At boot time, With no date limit, Forensics Tools... The script that will block such request in the future. If you are worried about the coding process, AI is Excellent in the helping.
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@Arpie4Math@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-06 01:37
@atoponce Feature flag is here: chrome://flags/#prompt-api-for-gemini-nano When enabled, it powers demos like this: https://chrome.dev/web-ai-demos/prompt-api-playground/ #AI #GeminiNano
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@erstwhile@theblower.au 2026-05-06 01:55
@atoponce erm.. fuck you Sundar Pichai. #Google #Chrome #SundarPichai #Nano #AI #Enshitification #DataTheft #Privacy #EFF #EU
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@almad@fosstodon.org 2026-05-06 02:15
@atoponce Good that we have a healthy browser competition and it’s easy to switch
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@rothko@beige.party 2026-05-06 02:51
@atoponce why are people still even using chrome ffs
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@pjotrprins@mastodon.social 2026-05-06 11:25
@civodul if that argument holds then Guix should stop downloading 50Gb per machine per annum ;)
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@space_cadet@aus.social 2026-05-06 12:04
@atoponce 🤖"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile ... "🤖
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@RonV42@noauthority.social 2026-05-05 20:24
@atoponce@fosstodon.org But wait I thought everyone loved Google. Guess I was wrong. As for this crap they are pulling with Chrome. They are doing the same with Pixel phones and trying to do local LLM on the Android platform also.
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@alex@mostr.pub 2026-05-05 15:09
Noooo! Stop respecting my privacy by shipping local LLMs and make me use a cloud provider!!