Google’s Bard launch in the EU is blocked by Irish data watchdog.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has blocked the launch of Google’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) service, Bard, in the European Union due to privacy concerns.

Google launched Bard earlier this year in the United States, United Kingdom, and 178 other countries, but has been unable to launch it in the EU. The company intended to remedy this during the week of June 13, but those plans have come to a halt.

According to Politico, DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle stated that Google only recently informed the commission of its intention to launch Bard in the EU this week. Doyle explained that Google had not provided the commission with “any detailed briefing nor sight of a data protection impact assessment or any supporting documentation.” As a result, Bard will not launch this week.

In comparison to neighboring efforts in the U.K. and the United States, the EU’s approach to AI regulation has been described as being far stricter. European data protection supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski previously joked that “the definition of hell is European legislation with American enforcement” after OpenAI’s ChatGPT was banned in Italy due to privacy concerns. It appears that Google finds itself in a similar situation with EU regulators. ChatGPT was eventually approved for use in Italy after OpenAI addressed regulators’ privacy concerns.

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The push for greater regulatory focus on AI technologies in the EU stems from the EU AI Act, a proposed framework for regulating artificial intelligence in the European Union filed in May 2023. Its drafters seek to align governance of AI technologies with the General Data Protection Regulation, a sweeping set of rules meant to protect citizens’ privacy. Much like the Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation, the EU’s AI Act appears to have vastly different requirements for companies operating in the EU than in the U.K. or U.S., including a greater emphasis on security, privacy, and accountability.