Google's ChatGPT rival Bard launched in 180 countries – but not EU

Sundar Pichai, head of Google, speaks at the Google I/O developer conference. At the annual event, the company gives an outlook on future products, and the focus this year is clearly on AI. — Photo: Andrej Sokolow/dpa

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Google has announced that its AI chatbot Bard, the tech giant's rival to the Microsoft-affiliated ChatGPT, is being rolled out in 180 countries around the world, but that users in European Union countries will have to wait.

Bard, which now speaks English, Japanese and Korean, is being kept out of the EU as the US company seeks to clarify whether Bard is compatible with the bloc's legal framework.