DUBLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - 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 ( GOOG ) 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.