Google has apologized to India after its AI platform Gemini caused major controversy, it was reported. Calling the platform ‘unreliable’, Google apologized to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to The Times of India, quoting minister of state for IT and Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
The government has sent a notice to Google to seek an explanation for the ‘unsubstantiated’ results returned by Gemini in response to a query regarding the Prime Minister. To this, Google replied and said, “Sorry, the platform is unreliable,” the minister said as per the report. The government has announced that AI platforms will need a permit to operate in India.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar also urged platforms to respect Indian consumers and emphasized that AI platforms can be prosecuted under Indian IT and criminal laws for violations of false information.
Google’s Gemini chatbot controversy
Google was forced to remove the AI image generation feature from Gemini chatbot after several users complained about it generating historically inaccurate and biased images. The AI tool was accused of being “too woke” and “racist”. Following the controversy, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the problem saying that the company had ‘got it wrong’.
It was also reported that demands for Sundar Pichai’s resignation increased as analysts argued that the CEO must step down due to the time for change.
Analysts Ben Thompson and Mark Shmulik said that things at Google need to change as the company needs a transformation, as per the report.
In light of recent developments, the government has issued an advisory to AI-led startups, stressing the need to label unverified information as potentially false and error-prone. It follows an earlier notice regarding deepfakes, which is synthetic content that was circulating on social media and internet channels.
