In another turn of events, Google has delayed its launch of Bard, the generative AI chatbot, in the European Union (EU). The launch was scheduled for this week. The delay was reported by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the company’s lead data protection authority in the region. Graham Doyle, who is the deputy commissioner of DPC, said that Google informed the regulator about its intentions to launch the chatbot in the EU recently, but it did not provide substantial information to the regulator. This resulted in a delay, and the tech giant will not be able to introduce Bard in the EU in their targeted timeframe.
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Graham Doyle claimed in a statement, “The DPC had not had any detailed briefing nor sight of a DPIA (data protection impact assessment) or any supporting documentation at this point.” Doyle further added, “It has since sought this information as a matter of urgency and has raised a number of additional data protection questions with Google, to which it awaits a response, and Bard will not now launch this week.”
OpenAI had previously released the research preview of ChatGPT in November 2022 without putting any limits on where the preview could be accessed. Though the date of release of Bard in the EU continues to remain uncertain, users in Europe have long been able to enjoy the large language model (LLM) because of ChatGPT’s research preview’s limitless access. Further, the DPC has not yet provided details on the concerns that have been raised in regards to Google’s Bard.
Reports suggest that other Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in the EU have raised their concerns in regards to data protection with ChatGPT. Reportedly, this might be relevant in the case of Google. Further, the legal basis that is claimed for processing people’s data to train LLM AI models; compliance with regional privacy laws that are integrated with transparency requirements; and how developers approach other issues like AI-generated, as well as addressing child safety issues and providing EU users with data access (and rectification) rights
Graham Doyle further added, “The matter is under ongoing examination by the DPC, and we will be sharing information with our fellow DPAs as soon as we receive further answers to our questions.”
Back in April, the DPAs of the EU decided to set up a taskforce in order to coordinate the enforcement of ChatGPT. This was decided to be done via the European Data Protection Board. In the spring of this year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was directed to suspend its services in Italy. This direction came after an intervention by Garante, which is the local DPA. OpenAI is not established in any of the member states of the EU, and hence the EU DPAs have to follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if they have concerns. In the case of Google, only the Irish DPC has the authority to oversee Bard.
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Helen Dixon, who is the commissioner of DPC, has previously been critical of the hasty bans placed on the chatbots. Dixon called on the regulatory bodies to find a way to implement the rules under GDPR without the need to rush with prohibitions. It can be noted then that there is no hard ban from Ireland, but an uncertain amount of delay has reportedly occurred because of the inadequate information provided by Google.
