Europe's data watchdog, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, has predicted that US artificial intelligence (AI) companies will be in trouble, now under investigation for alleged violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In a recent interview, Wiewiórowski told MIT Technology Review that rapid developments in the field of artificial intelligence mean data protection regulators should prepare for another scandal, citing the Cambridge Analytica situation as a reference.
Wiewiórowski's comments come after a tumultuous week for leading AI institution OpenAI, creator of the popular GPT suite of products and services. The company's suite of GPT services has been banned outright in Italy, pending further information on its intent and ability to Comply with the GDPR , with similar actions set to follow in Ireland, France and Germany.
According to the EU data watchdog, OpenAI is now, legally speaking, somewhere between Europe's predicament and that of the United States. As EU regulators look to crack down, US lawmakers may look to European prescriptions as a possible local template. Wiewiórows ki said in an interview with MIT Technology Review: "The European approach is about what you use the data for. So when you change the purpose of the data, especially if you do it in a way that contradicts the information you're giving people, you're breaking the law." For example, OpenAI may find itself unable to deploy and run models such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 on this premise due to the way they are designed and trained. GDPR law requires EU citizens to have the right to opt out of data collection and, where systems output wrong data, to correct those errors.
However, some experts believe that it will be nearly impossible for developers to make GPT and similar large language models (LLMs) compliant with the GDPR. One reason is that the data they are trained on is often obfuscated, making individual data points inseparable from each other. According to the Technology Review article, Wiewiórowski's assessment is that this represents the worst-case scenario for a company like OpenAI, which is said to be working without a public plan to address privacy concerns such as those regulated by the GDPR. deployed .
Citing "big players" in the tech market, the data watchdog said, "the definition of hell is European legislation and US enforcement." As the deadline looms and OpenAI faces various official investigations in Europe in Italy on April 30 and in Germany on June 11 it's unclear how the company intends to handle privacy concerns from regulators.
Once again, those using products and services built on top of the GPT API and other LLMs are caught in the middle, who currently have no way of knowing when these models will be legally available.
An outright ban under the GDPR could have devastating consequences for Europeans using LLMs to power their businesses and personal projects, especially in the fintech market where cryptocurrency exchanges, analysts and traders have embraced the new technology. And, in the United States, home to many of the most important cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, a similar ban could deal a huge blow to the financial industry.
As recently as April 25, analysts at financial services firm JPMorgan said at least half of the S&P 500’s gains this year were driven by ChatGPT. If the U.S. follows Europe and enacts GDPR-compliant privacy regulations, both traditional and cryptocurrency exchange markets could face massive disruption.
