I wouldn't be surprised if there's a long and arduous procedure to clear a new product for GDPR compliance, and the PM had a choice between launching now and excluding the EU or launching later for everybody. This is also what originally happened with Bard.
this would suggest that the new AI is different. I still get Bard/Gemini new feature updates in EU but not the new model yet.
So the lawyers have time for this new features but not for the new model, so the new modl must bring bigger privacy concerns.
