Google AI Mode finally made available across Europe

Google AI Mode is rolling out in 35 new languages and 40 new countries, expanding its coverage to the EU, where it was delayed due to stricter rules.

Google is betting on search powered by artificial intelligence (AI), but stricter rules in the EU have been holding back the expansion of its latest features in the firm’s most important market outside the US.

The feature was already available in most of the world before launching in the 28-nation bloc, whichincludes countries like Germany, France, Poland, and Spain, as well as in several other countries and regions.

“Now, AI Mode will be available in over 200 countries and territories total, including many across Europe,” Google said in a blog post.

In Europe, the feature was already available in the UK, where it launched in July after the initial rollout in the US and then India.

Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese joined English as supported languages in early September, with Spanish added to the list a couple of weeks later.

It will now be available in several major languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, and French, as well as smaller ones like Danish, Greek, and Lithuanian, among more than 40 supported overall.

“The advanced reasoning and multimodal understanding of our custom Gemini model for Search allows AI Mode to truly grasp the subtleties of local languages, ensuring AI Mode is genuinely helpful and relevant in all the new languages we introduce,” Google said.

Tough market

While the tech giants initially threatened not to roll out new products or features in the EU because of privacy and fair-competition laws like the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, in reality this now only means a delay.

That is a price that the bloc appears to be willing to pay to protect the rights of its citizens, but technology companies argue that even small delays stifle innovation in Europe, which is lagging behind the US and China in AI development, and will result in a lesser user experience.

American tech giants, including Google, have been bending over backwards to stay on the good side of President Donald Trump, whom they see as a powerful ally in their fight against EU regulation. Trump has previously accused the EU of unfairly targeting US firms and threatened sanctions.

Google’s other new feature, AI Overviews, was already hit by an antitrust lawsuit in the EU after it was rolled out earlier this year.

A group of independent publishers filed a complaint in late June, arguing that they can’t opt out from Google using their content for AI Overviews, which provides summaries above traditional search results.

While AI-powered search relies on content created by others to generate its responses, it sends barely any traffic back to publishers, according to a recent study from Pew Research Center.

With AI search features still highly experimental, there are also concerns over the spread of misinformation, as users report glitches and hallucinations while browsing for information.