0
Chrome Is Quietly Downloading a 4GB AI Model Without Your Permission
May 11, 2026
Posted 1 hour ago by
Jibin Joseph, PC Mag, May 11, 2026 I've hesitated to cover this story because I have Chrome on my machine and haven't been able to find the 4 gig file where it's supposed to be (or anywhere else, for that matter). Mind you, I use Chrome only for testing; for day-to-day I use Firefox. But I've seen the story from enough sources now, including some that would actually check the data, that I'm inclined to believe it's true.
Having said that - I'm sure that this is only the tip of the iceberg. For example, I use Adobe's noise reduction feature in Lightroom and found the other day my C:\ drive filled by a huge 'cr_sdk' file. There's no documentation of this and no way to manage it. Is it AI? No idea. Could it be? Sure - and I'd never know. Are other services running local AI models? Even if not, they probably will in the future. Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]
Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily
Coverage and analysis from Canada. All insights are generated by our AI narrative analysis engine.