MeitY issues advisory mandating prior approval for deployment of AI and Generative AI Models

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) on March 1, 2024 issued an advisory to social media intermediaries and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms which are under trial or training to seek approval from the Centre before launching Artificial Intelligence (AI) products or services in India.

The advisory aims to regulate the rapidly evolving field of AI and ensure its responsible and ethical utilization by the users. The advisory mainly mandates that the use of under-testing/unreliable Artificial Intelligence model(s), large language models (LLMs), Generative AI, software(s) or algorithm(s) and its availability to the users on the Indian internet must be done so with explicit permission of the Government of India and be deployed only after appropriately labeling the possible and inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated. Moreover, the advisory recommends a ‘consent popup’ mechanism to explicitly inform the users about the possible and inherent defects or errors produced by AI, and to inform users by labelling deepfakes with permanent unique metadata or other identifiers.

The advisory further directs all intermediaries or platforms to ensure that their AI models, LLMs, generative AI, and algorithms do not permit the users to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any unlawful content as outlined in Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules or violate any other provision of the IT Act. The Advisory similarly mandates that all intermediaries or platforms are required to ensure that their AI tools do not allow any bias or discrimination or threaten the integrity of the electoral process.

The intermediaries have been instructed to ensure compliance with the direction with immediate effect and to submit an action status Report to MeitY about action taken in response to the advisory within 15 days from the date of notification. The official copy of the advisory issued by MeitY can be accessed here.

Subsequent to the issuance of the advisory, Rajeev Chandrasekhar (the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology) tweeted on March 4, 2024,clarifying that the provisions of the advisory (viz. process of seeking permission, labelling and consent-based disclosures to users about untested platforms) would act as an insurance policy for AI companies, preventing them from getting sued by customers. In his tweet, Mr. Chandrasekhar further clarified that MeitY’s AI advisory is aimed only at significant platforms and will not apply to start-ups. In simpler words, only significant online platforms (the threshold for which has not been specified) will be required to ask for permission from the government before releasing an undertested/ unreliable AI model.

This move aligns with worldwide efforts to establish cogent guidelines for the development and deployment of AI models. Today, many countries recognize the need for regulations to address major challenges viz. algorithmic bias, potential job displacement, and the ethical considerations of autonomous systems.