NEW DELHI: The inaccurate depiction of historical figures by Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, invited the wrath of Elon Musk as well as the Indian government on Friday. While Musk called it extremely concerning, India’s minister of state for electronic and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that it violates India’s Information Technology Act.
The Indian government is going to serve Google a legal notice over illegal response to queries on PM Modi by its AI Gemini.
"These are direct violations of Rule 3(1)(b) of the Intermediary Rules (IT Rules) of the IT Act and violations of several provisions of the Criminal Code,” tweeted the minister.
It all began when Google introduced Gemini AI models for image generation earlier this month. However, ever since its introduction, Gemini users have flagged many instances where it gave inaccurate historical images. The users shared images on X (formally known as Twitter), generated by Gemini, in which Gemini prefer people of colour while generating pictures. Elon Musk went a step further and said the problem is not just Google Gemini; it's Google Search too. Earlier, Musk labeled the Gemini AI chatbot as "racist" and "anti-civilizational. “I'm glad that Google overplayed their hand with their AI image generation, as it made their insane racist, anti-civilizational programming clear to all,” tweeted Musk on Thursday.
Now, Google on Thursday declared a temporary suspension of the feature, with plans to reintroduce an enhanced version soon. “We’re already working to address recent issues with Gemini’s image generation feature," Google said in a post on the social media platform X. “While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon," it added.
Google launched Gemini AI, initially launched as Bard, in competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022. In India, another user asked about fascism, and the Gemini AI tool displayed a proper reply about PM Modi. However, when the same question was asked about US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the AI tool refused to give a clear answer. The response irked the minister, and he shared how it violates India’s IT Act. As per the IT Act Rule 3(1)(b), the intermediary shall... display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any information that belongs to another person and to which the user does not have any right.