AI revolution is in full swing, but there are real concerns about the spread of misinformation and how generative AI like ChatGPT handles user privacy. This has gone so far that one Western country has banned ChatGPT.
The Italian data protection authority banned ChatGPT on Friday and immediately started the investigation into OpenAI over privacy concerns.
Millions of users have used ChatGPT since its inception and Microsoft has backed the OpenAI project by investing billions of dollars.
However, the Italian regulator is not convinced that OpenAI’s chatbot is compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In its statement, the authority accused OpenAI of unlawfully processing users’ data. It also pointed to the data breach the AI suffered last month when a conversation history features exposed users’ chats and payment information.
“No information is provided to the users and data subjects whose data is collected by OpenAI. There appears to be no legal basis for the massive collection and processing of personal data to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform relies,” Garante wrote in its statement.
In addition, the regulator expressed concerns about the technology’s inability to detect the age of its users and prevent minors from using it. In contrast, Google’s competing AI Bard is only available to users over 18.
OpenAI has 20 days to respond to the Garante order, otherwise, the company faces severe penalties.
