The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has unveiled an advisory, which ‘is issued in supersession of advisory eNo.2(4)/2023-CyberLaws-3, dated 1st March, 2024.’ From what it’s understood, MeitY has observed that intermediaries and platforms are often negligent in undertaking due-diligence obligations mentioned under Information Technology Rules, 2021 (IT Rules).
Going by the advisory, every intermediary and platform should assure that usage of artificial intelligence (AI) models/large language model (LLM)/generative AI, software(s) or algorithm(s) on or through its computer resource does not allow its users to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store update or share any illegal content, based on the Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules along with non-violation of other provisions related to the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). The advisory also mentioned that every intermediary and platform should verify that its computer resource in itself or through the use of AI models/LLM/generative AI, software(s) or algorithm(s) does not endorse any partiality in the electoral process’ ethicality.
“Under-tested/unreliable Artificial Intelligence foundation model(s)/LLM/Generative AI, software(s) or algorithm(s) or further development on such models should be made available to users in India only after appropriately labeling the possible inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated. Further, “consent popup” or equivalent mechanisms may be used to explicitly inform the users about the possible inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated,” the advisory highlighted.
Insights from the advisory specified on the need for every intermediary and platform about notifying its users through the terms of service and user agreement, with regard to implications of dealing with unauthorised information, including elimination of mentioned information, termination of access of user to their user account, and penalty under the relevant law. Furthermore, the advisory stated that if any intermediary is using a software for synthetic creation or modification of a text, audio, visual or audio-visual information, then that modified information should be labelled with permanent unique identifier for identification purposes, along with further changes made by the user being applied to the identifier as well.
“It is reiterated that non-compliance with the provisions of the IT Act 2000 and/or IT Rules could result in consequences including but not limited to prosecution under the IT Act 2000 and other criminal laws, for intermediaries, platforms and their users. All intermediaries are, hereby required to ensure compliance with the above with immediate effect,” the advisory concluded.
