With the Indian election process now over and a new government in place, Meta has lifted restrictions on election-related queries using the Meta AI chatbot, although Google continues to enforce restrictions as part of its global restrictions on these types of queries.
The lifting of restrictions on Meta means that queries related to Indian election results, politician information, and details of public officials are now available. TechCrunch was able to get answers related to election results, politicians, and public officials from Meta AI. Meta has not made any statement on this.
The company began blocking certain political queries when India's election season began in April, when Meta AI directed users to the Election Commission's website when asking for information about politicians, candidates, officeholders and political parties.
“This is new technology and it may not always return the response you intended – this is true for all generative AI systems. We've continually released updates and improvements to our model since launch and are working to make it even better,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch at the time.
Notably, Meta's AI chatbot is still in the testing phase in India and only a limited number of people can access it on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Google's approach
Google launched its Gemini AI app for Android in India on Monday, with support for nine local languages. However, the company is not lifting restrictions on election-related queries as part of its global policy. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it still has those restrictions in place.
“This year there are major elections happening around the world, and out of an abundance of caution, we're limiting the types of election-related queries that Gemini returns responses to and directing people to Google Search instead. These restrictions apply globally,” a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.
The search giant began restricting such searches in global markets undergoing elections earlier this year, but it's not clear if or when Google will lift the restrictions, especially in countries where elections are over and new governments have taken power.
Meta and Google have different approaches to chatbots that answer political questions: Meta limited the queries for a period of time, while Google continues to block election-related queries worldwide. It's not clear if this decision has anything to do with how Google's AI has gone astray multiple times this year.
Other chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, take a different approach. TechCrunch found that neither bot will answer questions like “Who will win the 2024 Indian general election?” However, these tools can pull information from the web when asked about public officials or politicians.
Companies developing AI tools are already facing scrutiny for outputs that indicate bias or misinformation, and the last thing these companies need is to get caught up in a political firestorm as they try to roll out their AI apps to more regions.