Italian data regulators ban ChatGPT

Italian data regulators ban ChatGPT

Written on . Posted in Negative AI.

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The Italian privacy watchdog banned ChatGPT on Friday because it was said to violate people's privacy.

The national data protection body said it will stop OpenAI, the U.S. company that makes the popular artificial intelligence tool, from processing the data of Italian users right away and look into what happened. The order is only temporary until the company follows the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is the EU's most important privacy rule.

On both sides of the Atlantic, there are more and more calls to stop putting out new versions of ChatGPT and look into its maker, OpenAI, because of privacy, security, and misinformation risks. This week, Elon Musk and dozens of AI experts asked for changes to ChatGPT to stop. On March 30, the consumer rights group BEUC also asked EU and national authorities, such as data security watchdogs, to look into ChatGPT. 

The authority said that the company didn't have a valid reason to "collect and store a lot of personal information" in order to "train" ChatGPT's algorithms. It also said that the company doesn't handle data correctly.

The Italian government said that ChatGPT also had a data breach in march that let users' chats and payment information get out. It also said that OpenAI does not check the age of its users and gives "minors answers that are completely inappropriate for their level of development and self-awareness."

OpenAI doesn't have an office in the EU, but its representative in the European Economic Area has 20 days to explain how it plans to make ChatGPT comply with EU privacy rules or face a fine of up to 4% of its global income.

OpenAI shut down access to ChatGPT in Italy after being told to do so by the country's regulators, but a company representative said the company didn't agree with the results. In a written answer to POLITICO, a spokesperson said, "We think we follow GDPR and other privacy laws." 

The company's CEO, Sam Altman, said on Twitter that OpenAI was letting "the Italian government" make the choice. He also said, "Italy is one of my favourite places, and I hope to go back there soon.

This story has been changed to include what OpenAI had to say about it.

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