European Union excluded as ChatGPT rival Google Bard spreads its wings: Know more

At the Google I/O 2023 event on Wednesday, May 10, the search engine giant announced new updates to Bard, including image capabilities, coding features, and app integration.

Google also announced its expansion plans to around 180 countries and intentions to add more languages.  

However, one crucial detail went unmentioned during the presentation – Google Bard’s availability in the European Union, reports 9to5Google.

Users and tech enthusiasts were quick to notice this omission when Google provided a comprehensive list of the 180 countries where Bard would now be accessible on a support page. 

The absence of European Union countries is striking and raises questions about the implications of this global expansion for Google’s AI endeavours.

Even though Google has not officially stated the reason behind this exclusion, it seems reasonable to assume that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could be a key factor. 

Last month, Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT citing concerns about compliance with GDPR regulations. 

Currently, Google’s AI chatbot is available in over 180 countries and territories, and supports three languages – English, Japanese, and Korean. The company is on track to support 40 languages, says Google. 

Google has expressed its intent to gradually expand Bard’s availability while ensuring compliance with local regulations and adhering to its AI principles.

Another noteworthy exclusion from the list of supported regions is Canada.

What is Bard?

Bard is an AI-powered chatbot that can answer various queries in a humane/conversational manner. The AI chatbot draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. 

Google says the AI chatbot can help simplify complex topics, like explaining discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, to a 9-year-old.

“We recently moved Bard to PaLM 2, a far more capable large language model, which has enabled many of our recent improvements — including advanced math and reasoning skills and coding capabilities,” says Google.

Besides Bard, Google is pumping money into various organisations, including DeepMind, Anthropic, and others to advance Artificial Intelligence technology.