New Delhi: Authorities in Italy have blocked chatbot ChatGPT in the country with immediate effect. With this, Italy has become the first European country to block advanced artificial intelligence software, which is able to simulate and elaborate on human conversations, among other functions. The Italian data protection authority on Friday (local time) said it is blocking a Microsoft-backed chatbot developed by US startup OpenAI and will investigate whether it complies with the country’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The Italian watchdog said a data breach affecting ChatGPT users’ conversations and payment information by customers for the service was reported on March 20. Many countries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have blocked ChatGPT which came into existence in November 2022. ,
“There is no way for ChatGPT to continue processing data in breach of privacy laws. The Italian SA has imposed an immediate temporary limit on the processing of Italian users’ data by OpenAI, the US-based company that developed the platform.” and manages. Fact check. Case was also initiated,” the authority said according to a release on its website. The authority said it noted the lack of information for users and all interested parties whose data is collected by OpenAI, but above all the absence of a legal basis that would allow the mass collection of personal data for the purpose of “train”. And justifies storage. The built-in algorithm of operation of the platform.
The Italian SA, in its order, has emphasized that the lack of any age verification mechanism results in children receiving responses that are grossly inappropriate for their age and awareness, even though the service allegedly complies with OpenAI’s terms of service. is addressed to users over the age of 13 in accordance with , OpenAI is not established in the European Union, however, it has designated a representative in the European Economic Area.
The Italian data protection authority said that OpenAI must notify within 20 days of the measures it has implemented to comply with the order, or face a fine of up to EUR 20 million, or 4 percent of total worldwide annual turnover. In its order, the Italian SA highlights that no information is provided to users and data subjects whose data is collected by Open AI; More importantly, there is no legal basis outlining the massive collection and processing of personal data to ‘train’ the algorithms the platform relies on.
As confirmed by the tests carried out so far, the information provided by ChatGPT does not always match the factual circumstances, therefore incorrect personal data is processed, Italy’s data protection authority said.