Google Restricts AI Use for India Election

Google is also working with the Election Commission of India to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on its search platform -- like, how to register and how to vote -- in both English and Hindi.

Google's Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) platform will refrain from answering queries directly related to Indian elections.

This decision is a part of Alphabet Inc-owned Google's ongoing efforts to enhance user experience by prioritising access to relevant and insightful information ahead of the upcoming elections in India.

Any queries related to candidates, political parties, election results, or information related to any specific office holder will not be answered by Gemini.

Moreover, Gemini will prompt the user to use Google Search, which can then provide more relevant sources, said a spokesperson of the company.

"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.

"We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously and are continuously working to improve our protections," Google said in a blog post related to the India elections on Tuesday.

This feature has been rolled out in the US and now in India. It will be extended to all geographies that will have elections this year.

Besides restricting Gemini, Google is also working with the Election Commission of India to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on its search platform -- like, how to register and how to vote -- in both English and Hindi.

Google is also strengthening its fact-checking ecosystem in India by supporting Shakti, the India Election Fact-Checking Collective.

Shakti a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers dedicated to the early detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes, and create a shared repository for news publishers to tackle the challenges of large scale disinformation.

To help users identify AI-generated content, Google has already rolled out tools and policies.

"Last year, we were the first tech company to launch new disclosure requirements for election ads containing synthetic content...

"Our ads policies already prohibit the use of manipulated media to mislead people, like deepfakes or doctored content," said the blog.

When it comes to images, Google will ensure every image generated through its products has embedded watermarking with Google DeepMind's SynthID.

Other than these, those who run election-related advertising on its platforms must undergo an identity verification process, and "provide a pre-certificate issued by the ECI or anyone authorised by the ECI for each election ad they want to run where necessary, and have in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for the ad," said the blog.

"We have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses" -- Google blog post

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com