Google Forced to Delay Launch of Bard Chatbot in EU Over Data Privacy Concerns - Watchdog

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US tech giant Google will have to postpone the launch of the Bard artificial intelligence chatbot in the European Union as the company has provided insufficient information about how the tool will protect the privacy of Europeans, a watchdog said Tuesday.

The watchdog at the center of the development was identified as the Irish Data Protection Commission, Google's main data supervisor under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.

"Google recently informed the Data Protection Commission of its intention to launch Bard in the EU this week ... [The watchdog] had not had any detailed briefing nor sight of a data protection impact assessment or any supporting documentation at this point," Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle was quoted as saying by US media, adding that "Bard will not now launch this week."

The Irish watchdog has asked for Google's detailed assessment and answers about how the AI complies with EU's data protection rules "as a matter of urgency" and was waiting for the answer. The issue was under "ongoing examination" by the watchdog, which would provide the information to other European data agencies "as soon" as possible.

Bard is Google's experimental and conversational AI chatbot unveiled on February 6, which was initially powered by Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), and is now powered by the company's most advanced large language model (LLM) PaLM 2.

It is designed to function similarly to OpenAI's ChatGPT. However, unlike ChatGPT, Bard is capable of pulling information from the internet.

ChatGPT language model, launched in late November, has received mixed reviews for its ability to mimic human conversation and generate unique text based on user input.

Some have praised the model for its professional applications, such as code development, while others have criticized its potential for abuse, such as students using the model to write essays.