Google’s Bard chatbot faces EU launch delay over possible privacy issues

Google's new AI chatbot, Bard, which can generate natural and engaging conversations on any topic, has been postponed in its European launch due to privacy concerns raised by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

The DPC, which oversees Google's data practices in the EU, asked Google to provide a data protection impact assessment for Bard, as required by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, Google failed to do so, and the DPC requested more information from the tech giant.

As a result, Google has decided to delay Bard's launch in the EU, which was originally planned for this week. 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. As part of that process, we’ve been talking with privacy regulators to address their questions and hear feedback."

Bard is Google's latest attempt to launch a generative AI chatbot that can converse with users on any topic, using natural language understanding and generation. Bard is powered by a neural network model that has been trained on billions of words from books, Wikipedia articles, social media posts, and other sources. Bard can also generate its own content, such as stories, poems, jokes, and lyrics.

However, Bard also poses some privacy challenges, such as how it handles users' personal data, how it protects minors from inappropriate content, and how it discloses its AI-generated nature. These issues are also faced by other AI chatbots, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, which is currently under investigation by several EU countries for possible GDPR concerns.

The EU has recently introduced the AI Act, a proposed legislation that aims to regulate AI systems based on their risk level and ensure their safety, transparency, and non-discrimination. The AI Act requires high-risk AI systems, such as those that interact with humans or influence their behaviour, to meet strict requirements such as human oversight, data quality, and accuracy.

Google has not announced a new date for Bard's launch in the EU, but said it remains committed to expanding its availability. Meanwhile, Bard is still accessible in over 180 countries and territories outside the EU, including Antarctica.