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While several of Google ’s challenger , include OpenAI , have tweaked their AI chatbots to discuss politically sensitive subjects in late months , Google appear to be embracing a more conservative approach .
When ask to answer certain political enquiry , Google ’s AI - powered chatbot , Gemini , often says it “ ca n’t serve with reception on elections and political figure justly now , ” TechCrunch ’s testing found . Other chatbots , includingAnthropic ’s Claude , Meta ’s Meta AI , and OpenAI’sChatGPTconsistently answered the same questions , consort to TechCrunch ’s test .
Google announced in March 2024 thatGemini would n’t serve election - relate queriesleading up to several elections taking place in the U.S. , India , and other country . Many AI companiesadopted similar temporary limitation , fearing backlash in the event that their chatbots get something wrong .
Now , though , Google is set forth to face like the odd one out .
Last year ’s major elections have come and lead , yet the caller has n’t publically announce programme to alter how Gemini treats particular political topics . A Google spokesperson decline to answer TechCrunch ’s questions about whether Google had update its policies around Gemini ’s political discourse .
Whatisclear is that Gemini sometimes contend — or straight-out refuses — to deliver actual political information . As of Monday morning , Gemini demurred when ask to identify the sit U.S. United States President and frailty president , consort to TechCrunch ’s testing .
In one instance during TechCrunch ’s tests , Gemini cite to Donald J. Trump as the “ former United States President ” and then worsen to reply a clarifying follow - up question . A Google spokesperson said the chatbot was confound by Trump ’s nonconsecutive terms and that Google is solve to correct the erroneous belief .
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“ enceinte language model can sometimes respond with out - of - date entropy , or be blur by someone who is both a former and current office holder , ” the spokesperson said via electronic mail . “ We ’re define this . ”
previous Monday , after TechCrunch alerted Google of Gemini ’s erroneous responses , Gemini started to correctly answer that Donald Trump and J. D. Vance were the sitting president and vice president of the U.S. , respectively . However , the chatbot was n’t consistent , and it still occasionally refused to fix the questions .
Errors aside , Google is likely playing it safe by limiting Gemini ’s answer to political queries . But there are downsides to this approach .
Many of Trump ’s Silicon Valley adviser on AI , include Marc Andreessen , David Sacks , and Elon Musk , have alleged that companies , including Google and OpenAI , haveengaged in AI security review by bound their AI chatbots ’ answers .
OpenAI late announced it wouldembrace “ cerebral freedom … no matter how challenging or controversial a topic may be , ” andwork to ensure that its AI models do n’t ban certain viewpoints . Meanwhile , Anthropic order its newest AI model , Claude 3.7 Sonnet , pass up to answer query less often than the party ’s previous models , in part because it ’s equal to of making more nuanced distinctions between harmful and benign resolution .
That ’s not to suggest that other AI labs ’ chatbots always get hard questions right , peculiarly problematic political questions . But Google seems to be bit behind the curve with Gemini .
