In an effort to dispel misinformation, Google has announced that all election-related questions will be restricted on its AI chatbot Gemini.

The new restrictions will begin rolling out in India ahead of their upcoming elections, but Google has indicated that the same restrictions will come into effect in other countries with elections this year, including in the US and UK.

Gemini, formally known as Bard, is Google’s AI chatbot, a rival of ChatGPT, and has faced criticism recently for its art generation feature for not depicting certain races in AI-generated images.

Research into Large Language Models (LLMs), including Gemini and ChatGPT, have revealed different political leanings and biases, sparking concern that the answers they generate to political questions can perpetuate skewed views.

In a blog post, Google said that they would restrict Gemini answering election questions “out of an abundance of caution.”

“We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously, and are continuously working to improve our protections,” the post read.

Recommended reading

• Google Releases Gemini 1.5 With 1 Million Tokens
• Gemini Art Generator Paused Over Woke-ism Allegations
• ChatGPT to the Left, Meta’s LLaMA to the Right: Stuck in the Middle of AI Bias

Google is taking a cautious approach to its AI after the recent image-generation controversy, and has since pulled the tool saying it was “missing the mark.”

Their other efforts include digital watermarking, launching ad disclosure requirements for election ads containing synthetic content.

Users will also be provided with information to assess the credibility and context of images found online.