Italy's data protection regulator has temporarily blocked the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and launched an investigation into alleged violations of data privacy rules.
The data protection agency has ordered the immediate restriction of data processing of Italian users by OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT. The agency emphasized that this was in response to the recent data breach suffered by the AI platform on March 20. In addition, Italy's data watchdog said users lacked information about the data collected by OpenAI. In addition, the agency pointed out that there is no legal basis for AI to collect and store personal data on a large scale when training its algorithms. The agency also said the information provided by the AI chatbots did not always reflect accurate data and identified possible inaccuracies in the processing of personal data.
In addition to this, the Italian data watchdog also highlighted possible breaches of ChatGPT’s own data protection rules. While ChatGPT limits its use to people over the age of 13, there is no filter in the app to verify a user's age, according to the agency. This means that minors may be exposed to answers that do not fit their developing minds.
Apart from Italy, AI chatbots are also facing heat in other parts of the world. On March 31, the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy (CAIDP) filed a complaint against ChatGPT in an attempt to prevent the release of the powerful AI system to the general public. CAIDP described the chatbot as a "biased" and "deceptive" platform that poses a threat to public safety and privacy.
