DUBLIN  - Google's lead EU privacy regulator opened an inquiry on Thursday into whether the search engine giant adequately protected European Union users' personal data before using it to help develop its foundational AI Model.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), the lead EU regulator for most of the top U.S. internet firms due to the location of their EU operations in Ireland, said the probe concerned the Alphabet Inc unit's Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2).

"This statutory inquiry forms part of the wider efforts of the DPC, working in conjunction with its EU/EEA (European Economic Area) peer regulators, in regulating the processing of the personal data of EU/EEA data subjects in the development of AI models and systems," the DPC said in a statement.

Social media platform X agreed last week 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 regulator.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Leslie Adler)