Rajeev Chandrasekhar issues a 3-point clarification on 'directive' that got AI firms worried

The Centre on Monday clarified its directive for AI platforms to seek approvals before launching a product, saying the advisory did not apply to startups. 

The Centre's directive created ample confusion that all kinds of companies, including startups, need to have approvals before launching their AI platforms. 

Taking to X, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar highlighted three important points to clarify the rule.

Chandrasekhar said that the advisory is aimed at large and "significant platforms" and won't be applied to startups. He further said that the rules are aimed at untested AI platforms "from deploying on Indian internet".

"Process of seeking permission, labelling and consent based disclosure to user users about untested platforms is insurance policy to platforms who can otherwise be sued by consumers," Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted.

The Minister said that the safety and trust of "India's internet" is a shared and common goal for the central government, users and platforms.

The central government issued the recent advisory on March 1, over two months after the ministry issued the first advisory in December last year under the new IT rules. The first one was aimed at social media platforms directing them to follow existing IT rules to tackle deepfake problems.

"We issued one more advisory, which is a continued one that advises intermediaries and platforms that use AI, to be very careful about deploying on the public internet in India and allowing access to consumers," the Union Minister told ANI.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the second advisory was issued to ensure another case of Google Gemini AI tool that clearly showed a "violation in law by outputting unlawful content" was not repeated.

He further said that the advisory would help platforms to be more "disciplined about taking ther AI models and platforms from the lab directly to the market".