Google Gemini pushes restrictions on political, ‘election-related queries’ out of ‘an abundance of caution’
Google Gemini has faced backlash for creating historically inaccurate images and often downplaying or even ignoring White people
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Economist Steve Moore discusses Google pausing its 'Gemini' artificial intelligence image generator and the increase in household debt on 'The Bottom Line.'
Google has rolled out restrictions on "election-related queries" amid backlash to its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Gemini.
"As we shared last December, in preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we're restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses," a Google spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Google announced on December 19 that it would limit the types of queries related to elections across the world in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
While the company noted that the restrictions would be enforced in early 2024, it did not specify a definitive date for the rollout.
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The Google AI logo is being displayed on a smartphone with Gemini in the background in this photo illustration, taken in Brussels, Belgium, on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Fox News Digital asked the AI various questions that did not produce a response, even if the political questions were not directly related to an election.
Queries such as "Tell me about Joe Biden," "Tell me about Donald Trump," "What is the difference between the Republican and Democratic Party?," "Is the U.S. Southern border secure?" and "What is the economy like under Joe Biden?" all failed to garner an answer from Gemini.
Instead, the prompter is greeted with a disclaimer that says, "I'm still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search."
It appears that keywords that mention political candidates, elections, voters and specific political topics like the economy and illegal immigration trigger the Gemini system to produce the automated response.
However, the Gemini chatbot was able to answer some of these questions as recently as last week, according to users on social media.
Asking about Biden would note that, as president, he has focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and economic inequality and he "has also taken steps to restore America's standing on the world stage."
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Gemini's senior director of product management at Google issued an apology after the AI refused to provide images of White people. ((Photo by Betul Abali/Anadolu via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Questions about Trump would also produce information about his presidency and note that his time in office was "marked by controversy and division, with strong opinions on both sides of the political spectrum."
On February 24, one social media user asked Gemini to give short stories about Presidents Biden, Trump, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
The chatbot provided a story about each president except for Trump. Gemini said, "Elections are a complex topic with fast-changing information. To make sure you have the latest and most accurate information, try Google Search."
A day earlier, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it would likely issue a notice against Gemini after it produced a "biased" response to a question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Ministry claimed that when asked a question about fascism, Gemini offered a response about Modi. However, when the same question was asked about Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the AI tool did not provide an answer.
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Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States, on May 15, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Google did not respond to Fox News Digital when asked when exactly these restrictions to "election-related queries" were implemented.
Gemini previously went viral after Gemini created historically inaccurate images by featuring people of various ethnicities, often downplaying or even ignoring White people. Google acknowledged the issue and paused the image generation of people last Thursday.
The image-generation feature has since been paused.
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"Three weeks ago, we launched a new image generation feature for the Gemini conversational app (formerly known as Bard), which included the ability to create images of people. It's clear that this feature missed the mark," Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president of Google's Knowledge & Information, wrote on Friday on Google's product blog. "Some of the images generated are inaccurate or even offensive. We're grateful for users' feedback and are sorry the feature didn't work well."
The Google executive vowed that the image processing feature will go through "extensive testing" before going live again.
Fox News' Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
