Google has partnered with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide authoritative information on voting processes for the upcoming general elections via Google Search and YouTube videos.

Also read: Google ties up with ECI to prevent spread of false information

“We are collaborating with the ECI to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on Google search — such as how to register and how to vote — in both English and Hindi,” Google said in a blogpost published on March 12 titled “Supporting the 2024 Indian General Elections.”

Google has said that there will also be authoritative information via YouTube videos on how to register and vote in general elections, besides candidate information.

Additionally, Google has, in separate initiatives, taken new measures to combat misinformation and help people navigate AI content in the upcoming election season.

Supporting Shakti 

The new measures, ahead of the 2024 general elections, include tech giant’s move to support Shakti, India Election Fact-Checking Collective, a consortium of news publishers and fact-checkers in India. 

Both Google and Shakti (a pan-India network) will work together to aid in the detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes, and to create a common repository that news publishers can use to tackle the challenges of misinformation at scale, said the Google blogpost. This is part of the tech giant’s efforts to work with the wider ecosystem to counter misinformation.

The Shakti project will also provide news organisations and fact-checkers with essential training in advanced fact-checking methodologies, deepfake detection, and the latest Google tools like the Fact Check Explorer to streamline verification processes, according to the latest blogpost.

YouTube’s Synthetic Content 

As part of the new measures, YouTube will soon ensure that all synthetic content gets labelled.

Already, to help provide viewers with as much context as possible about the content they are watching, Google has started displaying labels for content created with YouTube generative AI features like Dream Screen. 

“And 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 for people when they are watching this content,” the Google blogpost said.

Generative AI products

Out of an abundance of caution on its Generative AI products, such as Gemini, Google said it has begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses. “We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously and are continuously working to improve our protections,” the blog post said.

Also read: Google: Why investors can stop searching for AI stocks and buy Alphabet shares

Google also said that all the initiatives outlined in the latest blogpost build on the work it does around elections in other countries and regions. “Google is committed to working with government, industry, and civil society to surface and connect voters to authoritative and helpful information online,” the tech giant said.

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