Restricted by Google The company announced Tuesday that its AI chatbot Gemini will not be able to answer questions about this year's global elections to avoid potential failures in technology implementation.
The update comes at a time when advances in generative AI, including image and video generation, are raising public concerns about misinformation and fake news, leading governments to regulate the technology.
When asked about elections, such as the showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump as the next US president, Geminis respond: In the meantime, try Google Search. ”
Google announced the U.S. restrictions in December and said they would go into effect before the election.
“In preparation for the many elections that will be held around the world in 2024, out of an abundance of caution we are limiting the types of election-related queries that Gemini answers,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. .
In addition to the United States, several other large countries will hold national elections, including South Africa and India, the world's largest democracy.
India has asked tech companies to seek government approval before releasing AI tools that are “untrusted” or under testing to the public and to label them as likely to give incorrect answers.
under the scanner
Google's AI products have come under scrutiny late last month after Gemini was forced to suspend the chatbot's image generation capabilities due to inaccuracies in some of the historical depictions of people it created. .
CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is working to resolve these issues, calling the chatbot's response “biased” and “totally unacceptable.”
Read: AI deepfakes and SA’s fight to protect the 2024 election
Last month, Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms announced it was creating a team to tackle disinformation and the misuse of generated AI in the run-up to June's European elections. — Zahir Kachwala, (c) 2024 Reuters
