Google’s Gemini AI chatbot found to be in violation of India’s IT regulations, says IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Yesterday, Google’s Gemini AI chatbot faced criticism and temporarily stopped generating images due to concerns about inaccuracies in historical depictions. The tech giant apologized for these inaccuracies but now faces a new challenge in India as the country’s IT Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, raised concerns about violations of IT rules and criminal code provisions by Gemini.

Gemini AI’s political bias

The controversy erupted when a verified user shared a screenshot that revealed the Gemini AI chatbot’s biased responses to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Noting the matter, Chandrasekhar criticized the AI’s response as a direct violation of IT rules and provisions of the Criminal Code. In a social media post, he emphasized the need for the Government of India (GOI) to intervene and called Gemini AI not only “woke” but “downright malicious”.

Chandrasekhar marked a message to Google and the Ministry of Electronics and IT indicating possible further action against Google’s AI tool. The minister’s harsh response showed concern about the potential abuse of AI technologies, especially when it comes to political figures.

This case follows Google’s recent decision to suspend Gemini AI’s image creation capabilities worldwide due to controversy surrounding inaccuracies in historical images created by the AI. Critics raised questions about whether the company overcorrected for the risk of bias in its AI model.

Google acknowledged the issues and stated that the team was aware of the inaccuracies and committed to immediate improvements. Powered by the Imagen 2 model, Gemini AI is designed to understand language, voice, code and video. Officially released in December, it allows users to create high-quality images with text prompts, integrating natural language processing and image recognition. Despite these qualities, it has faced criticism for failing to accurately portray a variety of scenes.

With legal repercussions looming in India, Google must strike a delicate balance between the potential of its advanced AI technology and its responsibility to address concerns about bias and accuracy.