Last month Google expanded its generative AI chatbot, Bard, to over 180 countries across the globe, but that excluded the whole of the European Union. Now, a new report claims Bard won’t come to the EU anytime soon over privacy concerns.
Politico reports that Google Bard will be “postponed” in the EU over privacy concerns. Google was apparently preparing to launch Bard in the EU “this week,” Irish Data Protection Commission Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said.
The Irish Data Protection Commission said that Google has not provided enough information how Bard would protect EU citizen’s privacy, which has apparently led to a delay for Bard’s launch in the region. The Irish regulator now has an “ongoing examination” regarding Bard, but says that “Bard will not now launch this week.”
Google’s rival in this space, OpenAI, successfully launched its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot in the EU previously, but has still faced issues. In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman briefly threatened to pull ChatGPT from the EU due to incoming regulations before backtracking. Microsoft’s Bing AI, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, is also available in Europe, but the EU has a “task force” investigating ChatGPT and other AI products.
In a statement to Politico, a Google spokesperson said:
We said in May that we wanted to make Bard more widely available, including in the European Union, and that we would do so responsibly, after engagement with experts, regulators and policymakers.
Google Bard is also currently not available in Canada.
More on Google Bard:
- Google Bard adds precise location support for better local results
- Bard gets Google Sheets export, improved logic and reasoning skills
- Here are some Bard features you might not know about
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