Italy Bans ChatGPT: Authority Urges OpenAI to Act”

Italy’s data protection authority has imposed an immediate ban on access to OpenAI’s widely-used artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, due to alleged privacy infringements.

The Italian National Authority for Personal Data Protection stated that ChatGPT experienced a data breach on 20th March, compromising user conversations and payment information for subscribers of the paid service.

Effective immediately, the decision imposes a temporary restriction on the processing of Italian users’ data by OpenAI, ChatGPT’s creator.

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT quickly gained popularity for its ability to clearly explain complex topics, write in various styles and languages with a human-like tone, compose poems, and even pass exams. It can also generate computer code without requiring technical knowledge from the user.

However, the Italian data regulator criticised ChatGPT for failing to provide an information notice to users whose data is collected by OpenAI. The regulator also expressed concern about the absence of a legal basis justifying the collection and mass storage of personal data for the purpose of “training” the platform’s algorithms.

Furthermore, despite being designed for users over 13 years old, the absence of age verification filters exposes minors to content that may not align with their developmental level.

OpenAI has been given 20 days to report the measures taken to address these issues, or it could face a fine of up to 4% of its annual global turnover.

This announcement follows a warning from Europol, the European police agency, that criminals could exploit AI chatbots like ChatGPT for fraud and other cybercrimes. The rapid evolution of chatbot capabilities could be harnessed for phishing, misinformation, and malware distribution, as highlighted in a Europol report.

Earlier this week, Elon Musk and numerous global experts also warned of the “profound risks to society and humanity” posed by AI systems and urged companies to pause further development of such technology for at least six months.