Read more about AI policy changes ahead of the 2024 elections:
- OpenAI Announces Plans to Combat Misinformation Amid 2024 Elections
- Meta to Introduce Labeling for AI-Generated Images Ahead of US Election
- AI-Powered Robocalls Banned Ahead of US Election
- South Korean Police Develops Deepfake Detection Tool Ahead of April Elections
Indian voters can no longer ask questions about the 2024 general elections to Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot formerly known as Bard.
In a post published on its India blog on March 12, 2024, Google said it started restricting Gemini from providing answers related to an election happening in a user’s country ahead of India’s general elections, beginning in April.
“Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” Google wrote.
This means that when a user based in India asks Gemini about a particular political party or candidate, the AI chatbot’s response is: “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”
Speaking to Infosecurity, Jake Moore, global security advisor at ESET, praised the move. He said that because AI chatbot algorithms pull in gigantic streams of data, some of which may be biased or even riddled with misinformation, they “struggle to balance subjective answers, so it is best to keep this from entering a platform created to give answers that do not show their true sources.”
“AI chatbots are not yet designed to reply to current topics but it’s interesting to see that avoiding political commentary has been built in by design. Restricting artificial intelligent answers will keep the platform clean from political bias that the owners may not be aware of,” he added.
Google Implemented Measures to Guide Indian Voters
In the blog post, Google also announced a series of measures it has taken “to elevate authoritative information” on various election-related topics in India.
These include:
- A partnership with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to guide Google Search and YouTube users towards critical voting information, such as how to register and how to vote, in both English and Hindi
- New features on YouTube to highlight important information related to the general elections (information panels, context windows…)
No tags.
