NEW DELHI: Technology giant Google said on Tuesday it is collaborating with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on Google Search ahead of the general election in India. The company is also using AI models to counter misinformation and implementing strict policies for running election-related advertising on its platforms.
Additionally, ahead of the general election, the company is sponsoring Shakti, the India Election Fact-Checking Collective, a consortium of news publishers and fact-checkers. They will work together to aid in the early detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes, and to create a common repository that news publishers can use to tackle the challenges of misinformation at scale.
"With millions of eligible voters in India heading to the polls for the general election in the coming months, Google is committed to supporting the election process by surfacing high-quality information to voters, safeguarding our platforms from abuse, and helping people navigate AI-generated content," said Google in its blog post.
The company said that during the election season, YouTube surfaces a variety of election information panels, including on how to register to vote, how to vote, and candidate information. For news and information related to the election, YouTube's recommendation system prominently surfaces content from authoritative sources on the YouTube homepage, in search results, and in the "Up Next" panel.
YouTube highlights high-quality content from authoritative news sources during key moments through its Top News and Breaking News shelves and news watch page. The company said that to tackle manipulated content, incitement to violence, or hate speech, it will use a combination of human reviewers and machine learning to identify and remove content that violates its policies.
"Our AI models are enhancing our abuse-fighting efforts, while a dedicated team of local experts across all major Indian languages is working 24/7 to provide relevant context," said the company.
Google explained that it has strict policies and restrictions around who can run election-related advertising on its platforms. The company noted that all advertisers who wish to run election ads on its platforms must 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.
The company said it has already started displaying labels for content created with YouTube generative AI features, like Dream Screen.
Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot, will provide high-quality information for election-related queries.