ChatGPT accused of violating EU data privacy rules by Italian regulators
Italian regulators said they told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Unions stringent data privacy rules.
The countrys data protection authority, known as Garante,said Mondaythat it notified San Francisco-based OpenAI of breaches of the EU rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation.
The watchdog started investigating ChatGPT last year, when ittemporarily banned within Italy the chatbotthat can produce text, images and sound in response to users questions.
Based on the results of its fact-finding activity, the watchdog said it concluded that the available evidence pointed to the existence of breaches of the provisions in the EU privacy rules.
OpenAI, which has 30 days to reply to the allegations, said it would work constructively with Italian regulators.
We believe our practices align with GDPR and other privacy laws, and we take additional steps to protect peoples data and privacy, a company statement said. We want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals. We actively work to reduce personal data in training our systems like ChatGPT, which also rejects requests for private or sensitive information about people.
The company said last year that itfulfilled a raft of conditionsthat the Garante demanded toget the ChatGPT ban lifted.
The watchdog had imposed the ban after finding that some users messages and payment information were exposed and because ChatGPT didnt have a system to verify users ages, allowing children to get answers from the AI tool that were inappropriate for their age.
It also questioned whether there was a legal basis for OpenAI tocollect massive amounts of dataused to train ChatGPTs algorithms and raised concerns that the system could sometimes generate false information about individuals.
The growing popularity ofgenerative AI systems like ChatGPTare also drawing increasing scrutiny from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commissionopened an inquirylast week into the relationships between AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have bankrolled them Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Competition regulators in the 27-nation EU and Britain, meanwhile, are alsoexamining Microsofts OpenAI investments.
AI systems also face broader oversight in the EU, which isfinalizing its groundbreaking AI Act, the worlds first comprehensive rulebook for artificial intelligence. The blocs 27 member states are expected to endorse a version of the legislation Friday.
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