Google announced that users can no longer pose election-related inquiries to Google’s Gemini chatbot. The changes are already in effect for India and the United States voters.
The Alphabet subsidiary stated in a blog post dated March 12, entitled “Supporting the 2024 Indian General Election,” that it endeavors to prevent any possible errors while implementing the technology.
Controversies, including historical inaccuracies and contentious responses, prompted Google to remove its artificial intelligence (AI) image generation tool in February. The announcement follows those events.
As part of a rebranding initiative, the organization debuted the image generator via Gemini, Google’s suite of artificial intelligence models, in early February.
Progress in generative AI, specifically in generating images and videos, has generated increasing apprehension regarding misinformation and false news. As a result, governments are contemplating the implementation of regulations on this technology.
Google stated on its blog:
“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.”
Additionally, nations such as India and South Africa are preparing for national elections. India’s regulations require technology companies to secure governmental authorization before the public release of AI tools deemed “unreliable” or in a trial phase. Furthermore, these tools must be suitably labeled to caution against the possibility of erroneous outcomes.
The proliferation of publicly available artificial intelligence (AI) tools has led to increased political deepfakes, necessitating electors to develop novel abilities to discern veracity.
Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, stated on February 27 that the United States is “less prepared” for election fraud in the 2024 presidential election than it was in the 2020 election.
The European Commission has established guidelines regarding AI misinformation for platforms operating in the region. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, issued its strategy for the European Union shortly after to combat the exploitation of generative AI in platform content.
