Google bans Gemini AI from responding to election related queries

In an effort to prevent any potential blunders in the application of the technology, Alphabet-owned Google announced Tuesday that it will not be allowing its AI chatbot Gemini to respond to inquiries concerning the upcoming global elections.

The update is released at a time when the public’s concerns about false information and fake news have been heightened by advances in generative AI, including the creation of images and videos, leading governments to regulate the technology.

When asked about elections, like the one that will take place in the United States in which Joe Biden and Donald Trump will face off for the presidency, Gemini says, “I’m still learning how to answer this question.” In the interim, utilise Google Search."

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In December, Google made an announcement about restrictions in the United States, stating that they would take effect before the election.

“In preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we are restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Aside from the United States, 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 seek government approval before the public release of AI tools that are “unreliable” or under trial, and to label them for the potential to return wrong answers.

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Google’s AI products are under the scanner after inaccuracies in some historical depictions of people created by Gemini forced it to pause the chatbot’s image-generation feature late last month.

CEO Sundar Pichai had said the company was working to fix those issues and called the chatbot’s responses “biased” and “completely unacceptable”.

Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said last month it will set up a team to tackle disinformation and the abuse of generative AI in the run-up to European Parliament elections in June.

With inputs from Reuters