BACKGROUND
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
reportedly issued an advisory on 1 March 2024 (Advisory) to
"intermediaries" and "platforms" hosting
artificial Intelligence (AI) including generative AI based
models.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) defines the term
"intermediary", which in simple terms refers to an entity
that on behalf of another person deals with or provides a service
in relation to an electronic record and typically includes players
like telecom service providers, cloud-hosting providers, e-commerce
platforms, etc. However, as the term '"platform" is
not explicitly defined under the IT Act or Information Technology
(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021
(Intermediary Guidelines) , the extent to which the Advisory
applies to digital "platforms" deploying AI based models
still remains ambiguous.
