NEW DELHI - India has asked tech firms to seek its approval before the public release of artificial intelligence (AI) tools that are “unreliable” or under trial, noting that they should also be labelled for the potential to return wrong answers for user queries.

The use of such tools, including generative AI, and its “availability to the users on Indian Internet must be done so with explicit permission of the government of India”, the country’s Electronics and Information Technology Ministry said in an advisory issued on March 1 to the platforms.

Countries across the world are racing to draw up rules to regulate AI. India has been tightening regulations for social media companies, which count the South Asian nation as a top growth market.

The advisory came a week after a top minister on Feb 23 lambasted Google’s Gemini AI tool for a response suggesting that some have accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of implementing policies characterised as “fascist”.

A day later, Google said it had quickly worked to address the issue and the tool “may not always be reliable”, in particular for current events and political topics.

“Safety and trust is (the) platforms’ legal obligation. ‘Sorry, unreliable’ does not exempt from law,” said Deputy IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on social media platform X in response to Google’s statement.

India’s March 1 advisory also asked platforms to ensure that their AI tools do not “threaten the integrity of the electoral process”.

India’s general election is to be held this summer, where the ruling Hindu nationalist party is expected to secure a clear majority. REUTERS