Google to restrict Gemini on election-related queries
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Google on Tuesday announced measures to inform its users for the upcoming general election process by surfacing high-quality information across platforms to protect voters from abuse and help them navigate AI-generated content.

“We make reliable information easily available with helpful product features, showing data from trusted organizations across our products,” said Google India.

Google will provide key voting information on Google Search and YouTube with the Election Commission of India (ECI) as how to register and how to vote in English and Hindi.

Also read:Are social media platforms ready for record elections in 2024?

Further, there will be authoritative information on YouTube homepage, in search results, and the “Up Next” panel.

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Moreover, YouTube has information panels that indicate funding sources from publishers that receive public or government funding, and information panels giving topical context for topics prone to misinformation.

For misinformation, Google said to rely on a combination of human reviewers and machine learning to identify and remove content that violates its policies across all major Indian languages.

“With recent advances in our Large Language Models (LLMs), we’re building faster and more adaptable enforcement systems that enable us to remain nimble and take action even more quickly when new threats emerge,” said Google.

For ads, Google requires advertisers who wish to run election ads on its platforms to undergo an identity verification process, provide a pre-certificate issued by the ECI or anyone authorized by the ECI for each election ad they want to run where necessary and have in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for the ad.

“We compile all election ads in a searchable hub that provides insights on who the advertisers are, where they are located and how much is spent on the ads.”

On AI-generated content, Google is building ways people can identify AI-generated content through new tools. Its ads policies already prohibit the use of manipulated media like deepfakes.

Google has also started displaying labels for content created with YouTube generative AI features, like Dream Screen. It will begin to require creators to disclose when they’ve created realistic altered or synthetic content, and will display a label that indicates for people when they’re watching this content.

Google has also begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will answer.