European Union privacy watchdog scrutinizes Google’s AI model

European Union authorities are investigating Google’s artificial intelligence model, PaLM2, due to potential concerns about its compliance with the EU’s data privacy regulations. The Data Protection Commission in Ireland has initiated an inquiry into the matter, as part of a broader effort across the EU to assess how AI systems manage personal data. With Google’s European base located in Dublin, the Irish watchdog serves as the lead regulator for enforcing the bloc’s data privacy rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The inquiry focuses on whether Google has evaluated whether PaLM2’s data processing poses a significant risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals in the EU. PaLM2 is a substantial repository of data essential for powering artificial intelligence systems, such as generative AI services like email summarization, offered by Google. The company has not provided a response to requests for comments concerning the investigation.

In a separate matter, the Irish watchdog recently reached an agreement with Elon Musk’s social media platform X, leading to the permanent cessation of user data processing for its AI chatbot Grok. This decision followed legal action taken by the watchdog, including a High Court application to halt the processing of personal data from public posts on X. Additionally, Meta Platforms halted its plans to use content from European users to train its newest large language model due to apparent pressure from Irish regulators.

Furthermore, Italy’s data privacy regulator had previously issued a temporary ban on ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, citing data privacy violations. To address these concerns, the regulator demanded that OpenAI comply with a set of requirements before reinstating the use of ChatGPT.