Google has officially announced that it is limiting the kinds of queries users can pose to its Gemini AI chatbot regarding elections.
The tech giant confirmed this in a blog post seen by News.ng on Wednesday.
As a result, the major search engine has begun to limit searches conducted in Gemini related to elections in any market in the world.
News.ng gathered that the policy had been rolled out in India, which will hold elections starting in April.
The change in India happened just a few days after the country released a directive mandating that tech companies obtain government approval before releasing any new AI models.
Google’s spokesman asserted that the most recent action was a component of the plans it revealed last year regarding how it would handle elections.
“As we shared last December, in preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” they said.
Inquiries on political parties, officials, or candidates now yield a pre-written response.
Gemini displays the following message in response to questions concerning a specific political party or candidate: “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”
“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 move in India earlier today.
Governments worldwide have moved to control the technology as a result of concerns about disinformation sparked by developments in generative AI.
India has informed tech companies in recent weeks that they must obtain permission before launching or testing “unreliable” AI tools.
Google issued an apology in February after an incorrect image of a black man was mistakenly created by their newly released AI image generator depicting the US Founding Fathers.