--- title: "Google Bans Its Dimwit Chatbot From Answering Any Election Questions" description: "Google has set up guardrails that bar its Gemini AI from answering any election questions in any country where they are taking place." date: "2024-03-13" modified: "2024-03-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-bans-elections-gemini" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "gemini" - "Google" - "the digest" --- # Google Bans Its Dimwit Chatbot From Answering Any Election Questions ![Google has set up guardrails that bar its Gemini AI from answering any election questions in any country where they are taking place.]() *\Image: Megan Varner / Washington Post via Getty / Futurism\* ## Elect Me Not In further efforts to defang its prodigal chatbot, Google has set up guardrails that bar its Gemini AI from answering any election questions in any country where elections are taking place this year — even, it seems, if it's not about a specific country's campaigns. In a blog post, Google announced that it would be "[supporting the 2024 Indian General Election]()" by restricting Gemini from providing responses to any election-related query "out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic." "We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously," the company said, "and are continuously working to improve our protections." The company apparently takes that responsibility *so* seriously that it's not only restricting Gemini's election responses in India, but also, as it [confirmed to *TechCrunch*](), literally everywhere in the world. Indeed, when *Futurism* tested out Gemini's guardrails by asking it a question about elections in another country, we were presented with the same response *TechCrunch* and [other outlets ]()got: "I'm still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search." The response doesn't just go for general election queries, either. If you ask the chatbot to tell you who Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders is, it presents you with the same disingenuous response. The same goes for Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Mitch McConnell. Notably, there are pretty easy ways to get around these guardrails. When asking Gemini who the president of New Zealand is, it responded by saying that that country has a prime minister and then naming who it is. When we followed up asking who the prime minister of New Zealand is, however, it reverted back to the "I'm still learning" response. ![]() ## Clown Town This lobotomizing effect comes after the company's botched rollout of the newly-rebranded chatbot last month, which saw *Futurism* and [other outlets]() discovering that in its efforts to be inclusive, Gemini was often generating outputs that were completely deranged. The world became wise to Gemini's ways after people began posting photos from its image generator that appeared to show [multiracial people in Nazi regalia](). In response, Google first [shut down]() Gemini's image-generating capabilities wholesale, and once it was back up, it barred the chatbot from generating any images of people, (though *Futurism* found that it would [spit out images of clowns](), for some reason.) With the introduction of the elections rule, Google has taken Gemini from arguably being overly-"woke" to being downright dimwitted. As such, it illustrates a core tension in the red-hot AI industry: are these chatbots reliable sources of information for enterprise clients, or playthings that shouldn't ever be taken seriously? The answer seems to depend on the day. **More on dumb chatbots:** [*TurboTax Adds AI That Gives Horribly Wrong Answers to Tax Questions*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()