(Image credit: Anadolu Agency (Getty Images)) Google's Chrome browser has been quietly downloading a 4 GB local AI model onto user's devices without asking permission. What's more, if you manually delete the model, Chrome will simply download it again. It was security researcher Alexander Hanff, who runs the ThatPrivacyGuy website, who discovered Chrome's dubious behaviour . He found a weights.bin file measuring around 4 GB stored in Chrome's local AppData folders. As the filename implies, it's a weights file for Google's Gemini Nano AI model. And as Hanff notes, it is downloaded without the user's permission. As he explains, "Chrome uses it to power features Google has marketed under names like 'Help me write', on-device scam detection, and other AI-assisted browser functions." Regarding the permissions issue, there is no explicit checkbox in Chrome Settings for the model download. It's part of Chrome's broader AI functionality, which is enabled by default where present.…