Irish Watchdog Launches Inquiry Into Google AI Model

Alphabet’s Google is facing another potential headache in the European Union, with an investigation by Ireland’s data protection watchdog.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Thursday that it has launched an inquiry into Google’s AI model and whether it properly protected and safeguarded European users’ personal data when developing and training it.

The confirmation of another investigation comes after Europe’s top court earlier this week had dismissed Google’s appeal against a €2.4 billion (£2bn or $2.65bn) fine imposed by the European Commission back in 2017 for abuse of its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service.

AI training

That was not the only fine on Google, and the European Commission has subsequently levelled fines totalling over $8 billion against it in the past eight years.

Now Ireland’s DPC announced “it has commenced a Cross-Border[1] statutory inquiry into Google Ireland Limited (Google) under Section 110 of the Data Protection Act 2018.”

“The statutory inquiry concerns the question of whether Google has complied with any obligations that it may have had to undertake an assessment, pursuant to Article 35[2] of the General Data Protection Regulation (Data Protection Impact Assessment), prior to engaging in the processing of the personal data of EU/EEA data subjects associated with the development of its foundational AI model, Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2),” said the Irish data protection watchdog.

It said a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), where required, is of crucial importance in ensuring that the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals are adequately considered and protected when processing of personal data is likely to result in a high risk.

The DPC also added that this statutory inquiry forms part of the wider efforts of the DPC, working in conjunction with its EU/EEA peer regulators, in regulating the processing of the personal data of EU/EEA data subjects in the development of AI models and systems.

Ireland’s DPC is acting as the lead EU regulator on this, as Google has its European headquarters in Ireland.

Personal data

The Irish investigation comes after X (formerly Twitter) last week agreed not to train its AI systems using the personal data collected from European Union users before they had the option to withdraw their consent, following court action taken by the Irish DPA.

Vienna-based privacy group Noyb (None Of Your Business) alleged that in May X had begun providing posts by its EU users to xAI, a start-up launched last year by X owner Elon Musk, to train tools such as chatbot Grok.

In July Facebook parent Meta said it would not be launching its AI assistant in the EU for the time being after the DPC told it to rework its plans. The social media giant said the European regulatory environment was too ‘unpredictable’.

Meanwhile Google has already received a fine for using European data to train its AI models.

In March 2024 the French competition watchdog, the Autorité de la concurrence, fined Google €250 million (£213m or $271m) for breaches linked to EU intellectual property rules, and for using content from digital publishers to train its Bard artificial intelligence (AI) service.