With India’s recent elections over and a new government in place, Meta has lifted its ban on election-related queries for its Meta AI chatbot. Meanwhile, Google still has restrictions on these types of queries worldwide.
Meta’s Approach:
Meta’s decision means you can now use Meta AI to find information about India’s election results, politicians, and officeholders. TechCrunch tested it and confirmed Meta AI provides answers on these topics. Earlier, during the elections starting in April, Meta AI would direct users to the Election Commission’s website for any political information. At that time, a Meta spokesperson explained, “This is a new technology, and it may not always return the response we intend, which is the same for all generative AI systems. Since we launched, we’ve constantly released updates and improvements to our models, and we’re continuing to work on making them better.” For now, Meta’s AI chatbot is still being tested in India and is only available to a limited number of users on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Google’s Approach:
Google, on the other hand, recently launched its Gemini AI app for Android in India, which supports nine local languages. However, Google still restricts election-related queries globally. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch, “With major elections happening around the world this year, and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses and instead point people to Google Search. These restrictions are applied globally.” Google started these limits earlier this year in any country with ongoing elections and hasn’t said if or when they will lift these restrictions in places where elections are over and new governments have taken office.
Comparing Another AI Chatbots:
Meta and Google have different approaches to handling election queries. Meta’s restrictions were temporary, but Google’s remain in place globally. This might be because Google’s AI has given incorrect information multiple times this year. Other AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot also have different methods. TechCrunch found that both don’t answer questions like “Who won the Indian general election of 2024?” but can find information about officeholders and politicians from the web.
As AI companies face scrutiny for possible bias and misinformation, they aim to avoid political issues while expanding their AI tools to new regions.
