MeitY revises advisory on AI and removes requirement of consent from the Government

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) on March 15, 2024 issued a new advisory revising its earlier advisory dated March 1, 2024. The revised advisory amends the mandate for intermediaries and platforms as regards requirement to obtain permission from the government before deploying ‘under-tested’ or ‘unreliable’ AI models and tools in the country. In light of such revision, the intermediaries are not required to obtain any permission for usage of AI components from the Government. However, they are still required to comply with the rest of the provisions (pertaining to due diligence) of the IT Rules. The revised advisory, however, mentions that the computer resource (though the use of AI) should not allow for any bias or discrimination or threaten the integrity of the electoral process.

It is pertinent to note that the revised advisory has retained the MeitY’s importance on ensuring that all data relating to misinformation or deepfake is identifiable at the earliest. For the purpose of such identification, the MeitY has advised that “….such information created, generated, or modified through its software or any other computer resource is labeled or embedded with a permanent unique metadata or identifier, by whatever name called, in a manner that such label, metadata or identifier can be used to identify that such information has been created, generated or modified using computer resource of the intermediary, or identify the user of the software or such other computer resource, the intermediary through whose software or such other computer resource such information has been created, generated or modified and the creator or first originator of such misinformation or deepfake….”.

Though the revised advisory was sent to eight significant social media intermediaries (who have more than 50 lakh registered users), however, it is applicable to all intermediaries using AI to ensure due diligence compliances as laid down under the IT Rules.