I'm sure it's also a marketing move to build a certain reputation. Looks like it's working.

Not geoblocking the entirety of Europe also makes them stand out like a ringmaster amongst clowns.

Well they are French after all. They should be geoblocking the USA in response for a bit to make a point lol.

Not with their cap table, they won't ;-)

Google Bard is still not available in Canada.

Are there some regulatory reasons why it would not be available? It seems weird if Google would intentionally block users merely to block them.

There's a proposed framework[1] in the EU that's rather restrictive. Seems like they're just not even bothering, perhaps to make a point.

[1] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory...

Google and Facebook were, up until just a couple of days ago, in a cold war within the Canadian government.

Google made a deal to pay 100M/year to news organizations in Canada but Meta is continuing to block news links.

You'd think Google would devote its resources to improve search, but instead they're paying journalists (who hate tech) to forge the very chains that bind us.

I think there are still some pretty onerous laws about French localization of products and services made available in the French-speaking part of Canada. Could be that...

I originally thought so too, but as far as I know Bard is available in France- so I have a feeling that language isn't the roadblock here.

Can confirm Bard is available in France and the UI has been translated to French.

neither is facebooks image one

technically, it is marketing but at this level marketing is indistinguishable from shipping

I'm curious about their business model.

Well so far their business model seems to be mostly centered about raising money[1]. I do hope they succeed in becoming a succesful contender against OpenAI.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-04/openai-ri...

They can make plenty by offering consulting fees for finetuning and general support around their models.

"plenty" is not a word some of these people understand however

You mean they put on a Redhat?