• Google made a significant decision regarding its Gemini AI chatbot’s resistance to answering queries related to the global elections. The company has made this decision to prevent the misuse of this technology during elections. This update comes when advancements in image and video generation, including generative AI, have raised concerns about misinformation and fake news among users.
• Considering this, governments are contemplating regulating this technology. After Google's update, when Gemini was asked about the US presidential elections between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, it replied, "I'm still learning how to answer this question. Try Google search in the meantime."
• It was declared by Google in the US that this update would be implemented before the elections. A spokesperson for the company said on Tuesday, "In preparation for the elections taking place around the world in 2024 and exercising caution, we are prohibiting many questions related to elections to which Gemini AI will respond." Apart from the US, many major countries including South Africa and India are having their national elections this year.

Tech companies will need government approval

• India has notified tech companies to seek government approval before publicly rolling out unreliable or under-trial AI tools and to label them for the possibility of providing incorrect answers. After the errors were found in some historical depictions created by Gemini, Google's AI products are currently being investigated for their high number of errors. This came to light when Google had to shut down the image generation feature of the chatbot at the end of last month. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is working to address these shortcomings. He also described the chatbot responses were biassed and entirely unacceptable.