Google is restricting its AI chatbot Gemini from answering questions about the global elections set to happen this year, the firm said on Tuesday, as it looks to avoid potential missteps in the deployment of the technology.

The update comes at a time when advancements in generative AI, including image and video generation, have fanned concerns of misinformation and fake news among the public, prompting governments to regulate the technology.

When asked about elections such as the upcoming US presidential match-up between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Gemini responds with: “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”

Google had announced restrictions within the US in December, saying they would come into effect ahead of 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 spokesman said on Tuesday.

Aside from the US, 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.

Under the scanner

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”.

Read: AI deepfakes and SA’s fight to protect the 2024 election

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 parliamentary elections in June. — Zaheer Kachwala, (c) 2024 Reuters