Last week, Google announced that its Bard chatbot was becoming available in 180 countries, excluding those in the European Union. Why is Google not launching Bard on our continent (for now)?
Experts tell Wired that the company may be afraid of the consequences of mistakes that the chatbot can make. Bard can occasionally ‘hallucinate’ facts, presenting inaccuracies as true. The Wired article talks about potentially spreading misinformation about topics such as the war in Ukraine.
It is well known that the EU can hand out sky-high fines, including to Google. The fear of being slapped again will be enough reason for Google to be reluctant to introduce sensitive products in the EU. However, the upcoming European legislation is a current motivator for Google to send out a signal. That signal: allow us to use AI without strict privacy legislation, or else.
While there are companies banning AI tools, it seems that the use of generative AI will become an indispensable part of many people’s working lives. Google may not be the only or even the biggest player in the chatbot space, but it has an ace up its sleeve. It appears to be trying to influence the upcoming law by denying EU citizens a useful tool.
Whether the EU will yield to Big Tech this time remains to be seen. It is clear that the open source community also fears an AI law that is too far-reaching, with which Google also finds an ally in a worthy competitor.
