Google is restricting AI chatbot Gemini from answering questions on the worldwide elections set to occur this 12 months, the Alphabet-owned firm said Tuesday, because it looks to avoid potential missteps within the deployment of the technology.
The update comes at a time when advancements in generative AI, including image and video generation, have fanned concerns of misinformation and faux news amongst the general public, prompting governments to control the technology.
When asked about elections corresponding to the upcoming presidential match-up between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Gemini responds with “I’m still learning tips on how to answer this query. Within the meantime, try Google Search.”
Google had announced restrictions inside the US in December, saying they might come into effect ahead of the election.
“In preparation for the various elections happening all over the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the sorts of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” an organization spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Aside from the US, national elections are set to be held in several large countries including South Africa and India, the world’s largest democracy.
India has asked tech firms to hunt government approval before the general public release of AI tools which can be “unreliable” or under trial, and to label them for the potential to return unsuitable answers.
Google’s AI products are under the scanner after inaccuracies in some historical depictions of individuals created by Gemini forced it to pause the chatbot’s image-generation feature late last month.
CEO Sundar Pichai had said the corporate was working to repair those issues and called the chatbot’s responses “biased” and “completely unacceptable.”
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said last month it’s going to arrange a team to tackle disinformation and the abuse of generative AI within the run-up to European Parliament elections in June.