Hello-
the extension of the images is JPG
The extension of a file is not the most important, it's the encoding of a file which matters. If you take a jpeg encoded image, and put .txt as the extension, it will still be a jpeg image.
That being said, if you are sure that your images are encoded in Jpeg at your server, it means that your server, your cdn, your proxy, (anything between you and the client) is re-encoding the file, certainly for speed delivery reasons. Webp images are smaller than their equivalent in Jpeg, in my case, it saves easily 25%, and it also has the advantage to have alpha transparency, the same way as PNG.
Chrome is a g product. Webp is a g product. JPG converted on the fly
I've never seen (so far) Chrome convering anything into a different format. Also, why? Chrome runs on the client side, so changing the compression of a file, once it was already transmitted is pointless. Chrome can "suggests" that it prefers a WebP format, when it sents its accept header, but it's still up to the server to send what it wants.