Indian IT ministry seeks government permission for AI platforms to operate in India

Amid debate over whether AI should be regulated, the Indian IT ministry has said that AI platforms must seek permission from the government to operate within the country. Although not legally binding, AI companies will need “explicit permission of the government of India” to test and deploy AI models and LLMs (Large Language Model) for users on the Indian Internet.

In an advisory released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the government asks AI companies to ensure that their AI models do not promote any bias or discrimination that could cause disruptions to society and threaten the integrity of the electoral process. The advisory is coming at a crucial time, as the general election will be held in India in the next few months.

The advisory can be seen as the Indian government trying to test the waters and gather feedback from the industry players before making the proposed rules legally binding. Though not legally binding, Friday’s advisory is “signalling that this is the future of regulation”, union minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. “We are doing it as an advisory today asking you (the AI platforms) to comply with it.”

AI chatbot producing biased and offensive outputs continues to be an area of concern, and no companies so far have managed to fully solve the problem. Recently, Google Gemini AI came under fire for harboring anti-white bias. It also drew criticism from India for a biased response to a question related to Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Google later apologized to the government and promised to fix the issue.

Via The Economic Times