The Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) has blocked the launch of Google’s generative artificial intelligence service, Bard, in the European Union on privacy grounds.
Google He launched Bard in the US, UK and 178 other countries earlier this year. However, until now it has been unable to break through in the European Union. Apparently, the Mountain View (California) company intended to remedy it during the week of June 13, but, according to reports Politico, those plans have been stalled.
According to the report, IDPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle stated that Google had recently informed the commission of its intention to launch Bard in the EU this week.
He also explained that Google had not provided the commission with “any detailed report, or a data protection impact assessment, or any supporting documentation.” As a result, Doyle said, “Bard won’t be released this week.”
The EU’s approach to AI regulation has been described as much stricter than neighboring efforts in the UK and the US abroad.
European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski previously joked that “the definition of hell is European law with US enforcement” after OpenAI’s ChatGPT was recently banned in Italy for privacy reasons.
It seems that Google is in a similar situation with the EU regulators. It should be noted that ChatGPT was finally approved for use in Italy after OpenAI resolved privacy concerns from regulators.
The impetus for more regulatory attention on AI technologies in the EU stems from the EU AI Law, a proposal framework to regulate artificial intelligence in the European Union presented in May 2023.
Its drafters intend to align the governance of AI technologies with the General Data Protection Regulation, a broad set of rules intended to protect the privacy of citizens.
Like the proposed legislation on crypto-asset markets, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act appears to have very different requirements for companies operating in the EU than in the UK or US, including a greater emphasis on security, privacy and accountability.
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