Google Restricts Gemini AI Chatbots In Answering Questions About Global General Elections

JAKARTA - Google restricted the AI Gemini chatbot to answer questions about the global general election that will take place this year. This was conveyed by its parent company, Alphabet, on Tuesday, March 12 as an attempt to avoid potential errors in the use of the technology.

This restriction comes at a time when advances in the field of AI's genratives, including in image and video creation, have sparked concerns about misinformation and fake news among the public, prompting the government to regulate the technology.

When asked about general elections such as the upcoming US presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Gemini answered with "I'm still learning how to answer this question. Meanwhile, try using Google Search".

Google announced restrictions within the US in December, and said the restrictions would take effect before elections.

"In preparation for many elections to take place around the world by 2024 and as a precaution, we are limiting the types of questions related to Gemini's election," a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

Apart from the United States, elections will be held in several major countries including South Africa and India, the largest democracy in the world.

India has asked tech companies to seek government approval before releasing a public "unreliable" AI tool that is being tested, and to label the tool as a possibility to provide incorrect answers.

Google's AI products are under the spotlight following inaccuracies in some of the historical representations of people created by Gemini forced the company to phase out creating the chatbot image at the end of last month.

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, has said the company is working to fix the issue and called the chatbot's response "bias" and "completely unacceptable".

Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, said last month that it would form a team to deal with AI's disinformation and generating abuse ahead of the European Parliament election in June.