Google suspends the launch of chatbot Bard in the European Union as regulators step in

CTOnews.com, June 14 (Xinhua)-- Google will have to postpone plans to launch its artificial intelligence chat robot Bard in the European Union after privacy issues raised by the EU's main data regulator.

The Irish data Protection Commission said on Tuesday that the information currently provided by Google on how Bard complies with EU data privacy rules is insufficient to prove that it complies with EU law. Under the EU's General data Protection regulations (GDPR), the Irish data Protection Commission is Google's main data regulator in the EU.

Graham Doyle, vice chairman of the Irish data Protection Board, said: "Google recently informed the Irish data Protection Board that they intend to launch Bard in the European Union this week." But he said the committee "has not received any detailed briefings so far, nor has it seen any data protection impact assessments or any supporting documents."

Irish regulators say they are asking and waiting for Google to provide a detailed assessment to answer "urgently" additional questions about how Bard complies with EU data protection rules. "Bard will not be launched this week," Doyle said. He said the issue was under "ongoing review" and that the regulator would share information with other European data institutions as soon as possible.

CTOnews.com noted that Google had extended Bard to 180 countries, including the US and the UK, since March, but had not yet launched it to EU countries, where powerful privacy regulators had accused ChatGPT of mishandling people's data and lacked the basis to legalise its algorithms under GDPR.

"We said in May that we wanted to make Bard more widely available, including in the EU, and that we would do so responsibly after contact with experts, regulators and policy makers," a Google spokesman said. "as part of this process, we have been communicating with privacy regulators to resolve their problems and listen to feedback."