Google Inc. has launched its AI chatbot in Canada after a delay tied to the company’s standoff with Ottawa over online news.
On Thursday the search giant expanded the rollout of Gemini, formerly known as Bard, to Canada after excluding Canadian users from its chatbot’s “biggest expansion” – to more than 230 countries, in more than 40 languages – in July. Canadians can now access Gemini in both English and Québécois French.
“Our team in Canada was still working to find a constructive resolution on Bill C-18,” Jack Krawczyk, the product lead for Gemini experiences at Google, told The Globe and Mail.
In November, the federal government and Google reached an agreement over the Online News Act – previously known as Bill C-18 – after months of tense negotiations, including Google’s threat to block Canadians’ ability to search for news on its platform. The tech giant agreed to pay $100-million a year to Canadian news organizations.
“Fortunately, the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with the bill … that really helped us clear a path to launch Gemini in Canada,” Mr. Krawczyk said.
announced the launch of its chatbot service to test users last February, with a wider rollout in the U.S. and Britain in March. The product rivals ChatGPT, a similar generative-AI chatbot from Microsoft-backed
OpenAI that was launched in November, 2022, and expanded to include a mobile iOS application last May.
Google’s Gemini app is available for iOS and Android as of Thursday, with plans to launch the mobile app in Canada on Monday, Mr. Krawczyk said.
Despite the fact users in Britain got first dibs on the chatbot, Mr. Krawczyk said Britain and a handful of other countries would be excluded from the approaching global launch of the Gemini app.
Pour lire l'article complet : Google launches AI chatbot Gemini in Canada after long delay - The Globe and Mail
