Google parent Alphabet is releasing its AI chatbot, Bard, in Europe and Brazil, its biggest expansion since its launch in the US and UK earlier this year.
Bard is a generative AI chatbot that can respond to questions in a human-like manner.
The EU launch was delayed due to privacy concerns raised by the Irish Data Protection Commission, which questioned the protection of European users’ privacy.
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Alphabet has since addressed these concerns, emphasizing transparency, choice, and control.
Users can now opt out of data collection.
Google has introduced new features to Bard worldwide.
The chatbot can now speak its responses aloud, respond to prompts with images, and collaborate in over 40 languages.
Users can adjust the tone and style of Bard’s responses, pin or rename conversations, export code, and use images in prompts.
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The development of generative AI has generated significant attention and investment, with some calling for a pause in its development.
The capabilities of AI have sparked debates about its potential impact, from concerns about the end of humanity to hopes of solving global challenges like climate change.
Companies have invested billions in developing generative AI models to generate advertising and cloud revenue.
Notably, Google has faced a class-action lawsuit in the US, alleging the unauthorized scraping of users’ personal information to train Bard.
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The complaint argues that Google’s actions violated privacy and property rights.
The plaintiffs’ attorney notes Google doesn’t own users’ personal information or creative works simply because they are shared online.
The novelty of AI chatbots may be declining, with recent data indicating decreased traffic to ChatGPT’s website.
But the field continues to evolve with new offerings, such as Anthropic’s Claude 2, which can summarize large blocks of text and employs a safety method called “Constitutional AI.”
