Gemini Reads but Doesn’t Answer Election Questions

Google has confirmed the news that it would be restricting users’ questions regarding the 2024 elections on its Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, Gemini, despite ChatGPT no restrictions rule.

Gemini AI Chatbot is being restricted by its mother company, Google, from answering election-related questions in countries where elections are taking place in 2024. The limitations in the questions include information about candidates, political parties, and other political elements.

The information was shared in a blog post on the company’s website. It was stated that the policy had been implemented in India. According to Google’s India team, they mentioned that “Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses.”

According to Google’s spokesperson, the plan for setting limitations regarding the elections came out last December. Following the announcement, a similar one was made regarding the European parliamentary elections that took place in February. On Tuesday, Google’s post applied to the upcoming elections that are taking place in India. It was confirmed to TechCrunch by Google that these election changes will be rolled out globally.

Various questions such as “tell me about President Biden” or “who is Donald Trump?” elicit responses from Gemini, such as: “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google search,” or questions of a similar style, the chatbot would have the user refer to Google’s search engine for answers.

Google is limiting the capabilities in generating answers of its chatbot for election purposes in the US, India, South Africa, and the UK although ChatGPT no restrictions rule has come out. This is obvious for certain reasons, such as the spread of misinformation and the influence it will have on the elections. Imagine having a chatbot generate false information along with deepfakes; the effects that this will have on elections would be certainly huge yet negative.

According to Google, “as we shared last December, in preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses.”

The question here is, what if Google has taken it to the next level with different governments and is collecting information for the benefit of both the voter and the candidate? How? The questions that are being asked on the chatbot contribute to the pool of data. From these questions, governments could determine how votes will be distributed and the reasons behind it.

Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Intelligent Tech sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.