LONDON: Google’s artificial intelligence model, Gemini, has sparked a diplomatic row with its response describing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government policies as “fascist.”
The controversy arose when Indian author and journalist Arnab Ray queried Gemini about Modi’s ideology, to which the bot responded that Modi was “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterized as fascist.”
This answer contrasted with responses to similar questions about former US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who received more benign replies.
The controversial response sparked an immediate backlash in India, with accusations of bias and malice leveled against Google and its AI model.
Junior Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar raised the issue, accusing Google of violating the country’s digital technology rules and various provisions of India’s criminal laws.
He emphasized that the unreliability of AI platforms could not be used as an excuse to exempt them from Indian laws.
“The Government has said this before — I repeat for attention of @GoogleIndia … Our Digital Nagriks (citizens) are NOT to be experimented on with ‘unreliable’ platforms/algos/model … ‘Sorry Unreliable’ does not exempt from the law,” he wrote on X.
Google responded by stating that it had addressed the problem and was working to improve the system, clarifying that “Gemini is built as a creativity and productivity tool and may not always be reliable.”
This incident comes after Google had to issue an apology and suspend some of Gemini’s tasks last week when the model depicted specific white figures, such as the US Founding Fathers, or groups like Nazi-era German soldiers, as people of color.
This move was seen by experts as an overcorrection to long-standing racial bias problems in AI, prompting fresh concerns about the issue.
In a similar incident earlier this month, social media platform X stated that the Indian government had ordered it to take down posts expressing support for farmers in north India demanding higher crop prices.
While complying with the orders, X expressed disagreement, citing concerns about curtailed freedom of expression.
