The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is drafting a new law on artificial intelligence, which will avoid prescribing any penal consequence for violations, in recognition of technology's significant benefits.
The law will be standalone and require social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X to add watermarks and labels on AI-generated content, according to Indian Express.
"While we will attempt to regulate AI, we are clear that innovation is not stifled in the process. It (innovation) needs to be encouraged.
"As we did with the DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection) Act, we will ensure that both the interests of innovation and protection of vital interests will come in in the future," IT Secretary S Krishnan said during an industry event.
The ministry is working on a legal framework to make companies develop large language models to train their databases on the Indian language and "India-specific" content.
Since last year, the discussion on AI content warning has entered mainstream discussions.
In India, deep fake videos of actors and political figures brought attention to this problem. Google's Gemini showing inconsistency in answers about political figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also pricked authorities' ears.
Last November, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said the government plans to regulate the spread of deep fake videos, terming them as a "threat to democracy."
Some social media companies have started adding watermarks to their AI-generated content even before the law tells them to do so.
Adobe, Arm, Intel, Microsoft, and Truepic have all also launched a joint project called Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), which gives context and history to digital media.
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