Google’s AI feature on hold in most EU member states due to ‘strict rules’

Google’s Search-integrated AI feature, AI Overviews, has not yet been rolled out in most EU countries due to regulatory uncertainty, according to a senior executive working at the US tech giant.

AI Overviews aims to help users ask new kinds of questions and find information across the web and was launched in eight EU member states - Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, as well as Switzerland - in late March, but held back in the remaining EU countries.

Whether or not it will still come to countries like France, which has strict national rules when it comes to neighbouring rights and copyright in addition to EU rules, remains moot, but is “not impossible”, one official said. 

AI Overviews was rolled out in the EU nine months after its launch in the US and other jurisdictions. 

The company official said that the flurry of EU tech rules including the AI Act, Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), “hold back the launch of innovative features” leading to concerns around product innovation.

“The EU is behind when it comes to product innovation, and users in Europe will have a less good product experience,” the executive added.

Google’s concerns add to the recent problems that were voiced by Meta, which also recently launched an AI assistant in Europe after regulatory disputes last year.  

Meta said earlier this month: “It’s taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system - but we’re glad we’re finally here.” 

The company – including its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and global policy chief Joel Kaplan – have been critical of Europe’s regulatory action against US tech companies, even more so after the new US administration of Republican President Donald Trump took office in January.