Rajeev Chandrasekhar Clarifies Govt's AI Stance, Labels Advisory An 'Insurance Policy' For Companies

Last Updated: March 04, 2024, 12:59 IST

In a follow-up to the recent advisory issued by MeiTY on March 1, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for IT, has clarified crucial aspects of the advisory amid industry-wide concerns.

Chandrasekhar emphasised that the advisory specifically targets “Significant platforms and permission seeking from Meity is only for large plarforms and will not apply to startups.” He stated that the focus of the advisory is on “untested AI platforms” intended for deployment on the “Indian Internet.”

Furthermore, he underscored that the advisory serves as an “insurance policy” for platforms, protecting them from potential consumer lawsuits. To ensure compliance, obtaining permission and clearly labeling, as well as obtaining consent for disclosing untested platforms to users, is crucial.

“Safety & Trust of India’s Internet is a shared and common goal for Govt, users and Platforms,” he concluded.

For those unfamiliar, the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, issued an advisory on March 1 addressing platforms utilising generative AI models and algorithms. The advisory emphasises the necessity for these platforms to ask “explicit permission of the government of India” before they are launched in India. Moreover, the companies should ensure that their models shouldn’t “host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any unlawful content,” and that “Non-compliance with provisions would result in penal consequences.”

This was preceded by a controversial move by Google’s Gemini generative AI platform, wherein it was alleged to be biased when asked a query about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.