Google limits Gemini chatbot election queries

Google announced that it will restrict the election-related questions users can ask its Gemini chatbot. The company added that the changes have already been implemented in India and the United States, where elections are scheduled for this spring.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Google announced, "We have begun rolling out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses out of an abundance of caution on such an important subject." "Our commitment to delivering superior quality information in response to such inquiries is unwavering, and we consistently strive to enhance our security measures."

A Google representative told CNBC that the modifications are consistent with the organisation's intended strategy for electoral processes.

"As we disclosed last December, we are restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses in preparation for the numerous global elections that will occur in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution," the spokesperson said.

Google withdrew its artificial intelligence image generation tool a month ago in response to a series of controversies, which included historical inaccuracies and controversial responses. The announcement follows this development. In February, the image generator was introduced via Gemini, which is Google's primary suite of artificial intelligence models, as a component of a substantial rebranding initiative.

"We have taken the feature offline while we fix that," Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google's Deep Mind, stated during a panel discussion at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. "We anticipate restoring that to online status within the next few weeks, if not sooner." Furthermore, the product was not "functioning as intended," he continued.

Additionally, the announcement comes as technological platforms gear up for a monumental year of elections that will impact over four billion individuals across over forty countries. Serious concerns have been raised regarding election-related misinformation due to the proliferation of AI-generated content; according to data from machine learning firm Clarity, the number of generated deep fakes has increased by 900 per cent annually.

Election-related misinformation has been a significant concern since the 2016 presidential campaign when Russian actors attempted to exploit inexpensive and uncomplicated methods to distribute false information on social media platforms. Presently, legislators are even more apprehensive about the exponential growth of AI.

"There is reason for grave concern regarding the potential misuse of AI in political campaigns to mislead voters," California Democratic state senator Josh Becker told CNBC in an interview last month.

The rate at which detection and watermarking technologies are being developed to identify deep fakes needs to be increased. Despite platforms producing AI-generated videos and images agreeing to incorporate specific types of metadata and invisible watermarks, methods exist to circumvent these safeguards. Screenshot ting can occasionally fool a detection system.

Google has recently prioritised the development and substantial investment in AI assistants or agents. The term is frequently used to refer to various productivity tools, including chatbots and coding assistants.

On January 30, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai emphasised the importance of AI agents during the organisation's earnings call. Pichai hopes to eventually provide an AI agent capable of performing increasing tasks for users, including those within Google Search.

However, he added that "a lot of execution remains." Similarly, tech industry titans' CEOs, including those of Amazon and Microsoft, reaffirmed their determination to develop AI agents as productivity tools.

Google's Gemini rebranding, app rollouts, and feature expansions were an initial step towards "building a true AI assistant," Sissie Hsiao, general manager for Google Assistant and Bard and vice president at Google, told reporters on a call in February.