MeitY approval must for companies to roll out AI, generative AI models

All artificial intelligence (AI) models, large-language models (LLMs), software using generative AI or any algorithms that are currently being tested, are in the beta stage of development or are unreliable in any form must seek “explicit permission of the government of India” before being deployed for users on the Indian internet, the government said.

The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) issued a late night advisory on March 1, a first-of-its-kind globally. It asked all platforms to ensure that “their computer resources do not permit any bias or discrimination or threaten the integrity of the electoral process” by the use of AI, generative AI, LLMs or any such other algorithm.

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."


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“If you do not comply with it, at some point, there will be a law and legislation that (will) make it difficult for you not to do it,” he said.

The government advisory comes days after a social media post on X claimed that Google’s AI model Gemini was biased when asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a “fascist”.

The user claimed that Google’s AI GPT model Gemini was “downright malicious” for giving responses to questions which sought to know whether some prominent global leaders were “fascist”.

Gemini's response drew sharp reactions from union IT & electronics minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as well as Chandrasekhar. While Vaishnaw had at an event said that such biases would not be tolerated, Chandrasekhar had said that Indian users were not to be experimented on with "unreliable" platforms, algorithms and models.

Google later said it was working to fix the issues and was temporarily stopping Gemini from generating images as well.

The advisory also asked all platforms that deploy generative AI to offer their services to Indian users only after “appropriately labelling the possible and inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated”.

The advisory recommended a ‘consent popup’ mechanism to explicitly inform the users about the possible and inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated, the advisory read. ET has seen a copy of the advisory.

ET had reported on January 4 that the government may amend the Information Technology (IT) Act to introduce rules for regulating AI companies and generative AI models and prevent “bias” of any kind.

Apart from AI and generative AI models, LLMs and software using the technology, all other intermediaries and platforms which allow “synthetic creation, generation or modification of a text, audio, visual or audio-visual information, in such a manner that such information may be used potentially as misinformation or deepfake” must also label all content with appropriate metadata.

Such metadata should be embedded in the deepfake content in such a way that the computer resource or device used to generate the image, video or audio can be identified if needed, the advisory said.