BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said it is rolling out its artificial- intelligence chatbot, Bard, in Europe and Brazil on Thursday, the product's biggest expansion since its February launch and pitting it against Microsoft (MSFT.O)-backed rival ChatGPT. Bard and ChatGPT are human-sounding programs that use generative artificial intelligence to hold conversations with users and answer myriad prompts. Earlier this week, billionaire Elon Musk also launched his long-teased artificial-intelligence startup xAI, whose team includes several former engineers at Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. Krawczyk said Google had since then met the watchdogs to reassure them on issues relating to transparency, choice and control. In a briefing with journalists, Amar Subramanya, engineering vice president of Bard, added that users could opt out of their data being collected.

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Persons: Bard, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, Jack Krawczyk, Krawczyk, Amar Subramanya, Subramanya, Foo Yun Chee, Isabel Woodford, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe, Brazil, U.S, Brussels, Mexico