Italy has become the first country in the West to block the advanced artificial intelligence program ChatGPT.
Italy became the first Western country to block the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program.
The Italian government body for data protection announced that there are privacy concerns related to the chatbot created by the American company OpenAI and which is backed by Microsoft. Italian authorities reported that the ban and investigation of the matter have “immediate effect” .
Millions of people around the world have used ChatGPT since its launch in November 2022.
The program can answer questions using human-like language and mimic different styles of writing.
Microsoft has spent billions of dollars on the chatbot that has been added to the Bing search engine since February. It also recently said it will incorporate a version of the technology into its Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Concerns about the risks AI’s potentials have been rampant in recent months, including its ability to kill jobs and spread misinformation.
“Out of control”
This week, a group of AI experts and tech industry executives, including Elon Musk, called for a six-month hiatus on training powerful AI systems, arguing it is a potential threat to humanity.
The statement, signed by more than 1,000 people, notes that there is an “out of control” race in the development of this type of technology. The Italian regulatory body said it would not only block the OpenAI chatbot, but also investigate whether it complies with the General Data Protection Regulation.
“User conversations and payment information”
Prior to the decision to block ChatGPT, authorities had noted on March 20 that the app incurred a data breach related to user conversations and payment information.
At that time, the regulator maintained that there was no legal basis to justify “the massive collection and storage of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform’s operation is based.” It also said that since there is no way to verify the age of users and that the application “exposes minors to responses that are totally inappropriate compared to their level of development and awareness.” Bard, the rival artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, It is currently available only to users over the age of 18.
The Italian data protection authority announced that the OpenAI company has 20 days to say how it will respond to the agency’s concerns, at risk of a US$21.7 million fine or up to 4% of annual revenue.Dan Morgan, expert de Security Scorecard, a cybersecurity ratings firm, said the ban shows the importance of regulatory compliance for companies operating in Europe to follow. data protection established by the European Union”.
“There are serious concerns”
Consumer advocacy group BEUC has also called on EU and national authorities, including data protection watchdogs, to investigate ChatGPT and other similar chatbots, following a US application. in relation to the same matter.
Although the European Union is currently working on the world’s first legislation on artificial intelligence, BEUC’s concern is that it will be years before new regulations come into force, leaving consumers at risk of harm from a technology that It is not regulated enough.
Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of the consumer organization, warned that society “is currently not sufficiently protected from the harm” that artificial intelligence can cause.
“There are serious concerns about how ChatGPT and similar chatbots can trick and manipulate people,” Pachl said.
“These artificial intelligence systems need greater public scrutiny and the authorities must reassert control over them,” he added.
ChatGPT is already blocked in several countries, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
OpenAI has not yet responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
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