Google has unveiled fresh initiatives aimed at bolstering the upcoming general elections in India. These initiatives focus on furnishing voters with reliable information, protecting its platforms from misuse, and aiding individuals in navigating AI-generated content. Leading up to the elections, Google is working closely with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to facilitate seamless access to crucial voting details via Google Search, including registration guidelines and voting procedures, available in both English and Hindi.

To run election ads on Google platforms, advertisers are required to undergo an identity verification process. They also need to provide a pre-certificate issued by the Election Commission of India or any authorized entity for each election ad they wish to run (when necessary). Additionally, the ads must contain in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for them. "Additionally, we have long-standing ads policies that prohibit ads from promoting demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust or participation in elections", said the company.

The company has also begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini AI will return responses. Also, every image generated through Google products has embedded watermarking with Google DeepMind's 'SynthID', said the company. Soon, YouTube will begin to require creators to disclose when they have created realistic altered or synthetic content and will display a label that indicates to people when they’re watching this content.

Moreover, "we have information panels that indicate funding sources from publishers that receive public or government funding, and information panels giving topical context for topics prone to misinformation". Google said it is enforcing policies and using AI models to fight abuse at scale. "We rely on a combination of human reviewers and machine learning to identify and remove content that violates our policies. Our AI models are enhancing our abuse-fighting efforts, while a dedicated team of local experts across all major Indian languages is working 24X7 to provide relevant context", the company informed.

The Google News Initiative Training Network and the Fact Check Explorer tool have been instrumental in empowering newsrooms and journalists to provide accurate and verified information while debunking false news. In light of the upcoming General Election, Google is extending its support towards Shakti, a consortium of news publishers and fact-checkers in India, to ensure that credible information is disseminated to the masses.

Source : IANS