Google LLC confirmed today that it will play it safe this year with regard to election-related queries that its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot might be asked.

In the coming year, there will be major elections in 64 countries, affecting almost half the people on the planet. 2024 is being hailed as the year of the election. It might well be the year of election misinformation, which is the reason why major tech firms have already taken steps to dampen people’s concerns regarding the possible exploitation of their apps, especially generative AI-loaded apps.

Earlier this year, The World Economic Forum said misinformation was the biggest short-term threat to the global economy, citing global elections in 2024. It comes as no surprise that Google has announced its taking this stance when just recently the company was roundly criticized for being the purveyor of misinformation: Gemini feeding people completely inaccurate images in a bad apparent attempt at embracing diversity.

Much was made following the incident about the dangers of AI rewriting history, a la George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.” Today was perhaps a good time to tell the public that Gemini will refrain from getting too deep into politics and elections.

“Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” Google wrote in a blog post today. “We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously and are continuously working to improve our protections.”

Starting with the Indian General Election, Google said if anyone asks Gemini about it, the AI will point the user to authoritative sources either on Google Search or on the YouTube platform. The company will also collaborate with the Election Commission of India to help people find critical voting information while also working with an Indian fact-checking organization.

Such guardrails will also be in place for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Right now, Gemini refuses to answer queries relating to that election, instead pointing people toward Search. All the movers and shakers in the generative AI world will be under pressure this year not to look like Facebook Inc. – now Meta Platforms Inc. – did in 2016 when it was blamed for allowing election disinformation to pervade its platforms.

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