(Ottawa) Bard, Google’s chatbot, expanded its international presence on Thursday, but it’s been shying away from Canada for now. It is because its creator considers that the climate of uncertainty does not lend itself to this in the context of the adoption of the Online News Act.
The AI-powered robot is now available in more than 230 countries and in about 40 languages, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday. It is not landed either in China or in Russia or in Iran… or in Canada.
The decision is not unrelated to the regulatory process that is ongoing, a Google spokesperson for the company agreed in a statement.
“We are committed to being good partners as we navigate regulatory uncertainties in Canada, and we are excited to soon bring the potential of Bard’s Generative AI to Canadians,” it said.
The web giant is at open war against the Liberal government, whose Online News Act “unenforceable”, so that when it officially comes into force, next December, in theory, Google intends to stop relaying Canadian news in its search engine.
Since the Bard bot can provide links to news content, uncertainty remains.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, had not yet reacted to this new development at the time of publishing these lines, Thursday afternoon.