Google Blocks Rollout of AI Chatbot Bard in Canada

A Google sign at the company's office in San Francisco, Calif., on April 12, 2023. Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

Canada is one of the few countries in the world that does not have access to Google’s new artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot Bard, as the company’s war of words with the federal government over the Online News Act drags on.

Google announced in a blog post on July 13 that it was expanding Bard to 230 countries and territories, but Canada is absent from that list. Other countries that have been left out include Russia, China, and North Korea.

When asked why Canada was left out of the launch, a Google spokesperson told The Epoch Times: “As we continue to build Bard responsibly, we’re expanding access to more countries and regions in multiple languages. We’re committed to being good partners as we work through regulatory uncertainty in Canada, and we’re enthusiastic about bringing Bard’s generative AI potential to Canadians soon.”

Bard was only available in the United States and the United Kingdom when it first launched back in March. The launch of Bard in the European Union was delayed back in June due to Google failing to answer privacy concerns from the Irish Data Protection Commission, but that has since been addressed.

AI chatbots like Bard, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Bing allow users to interact with them in a conversational manner, with the AI then providing answers to their queries. This can result in the chatbots writing essays, planning vacations, sharing recipes, and much more.

The launch of Bard in several new countries coincided with a major update, allowing users to listen to responses aloud, modify the style of responses it gives, pin and rename conversations, and use images in prompts.

Online News Act and Google

Bill C-18, which requires tech giants to negotiate deals with and pay Canadian media for the content they link to on their platforms, led to Google announcing on June 29 that it would be removing links to Canadian news from its “Search, News, and Discover products.”

Google said the Liberal government had failed to give assurances that the regulatory process would be able to resolve structural issues in its legislation. On June 22, Meta also said that Canadians would lose access to news on its social media sites due to the Online News Act.

In response, the federal government pulled its $10 million in annual advertising spending from Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram. Canadian news and telecommunications businesses Quebecor, Bell Media, Torstar Corp., Cogeco, and Postmedia Network Canada Corp followed suit shortly after.