AI-based search engine biases may invite action

New Delhi, November 16

Provisions guarding the rights of social media companies and search engines will not apply if they are found promoting algorithmic or search bias, or if their artificial intelligence models are discriminatory, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X.

“Users can file FIR against such platforms,” the minister said while responding to posts on X that accused Google Bard, a platform that provides concise summing up of data and written text, of allegedly terming an India-based publication of spreading false information. A user posted on X what he claimed were screenshots of conversation on Google Bard. He claimed he had asked to summarise an article by a publication. The platform responded saying it could not summarise the article as the publication allegedly spread false information.

“Search bias, algorithmic bias and AI models with bias are violations of safety obligations as per Rule 3(1)(b) of IT rules under regulatory framework,” he said.