The Italian Personal Data Protection Authority criticizes in particular the chatbot ChatGPT ” the absence of a legal basis justifying the bulk collection and storage of personal data “.
This is a first in Europe. Italy became the first country in the Western world to block chatbot ChatGPT over data usage concerns on Friday, March 31. In a statement, the Italian Personal Data Protection Authority said its decision had a “ immediate effect “and will result in” the temporary limitation of the processing of data of Italian users vis-à-vis OpenAI “, the company behind the application.
The Italian institution reproaches him ” the absence of an information note for users, whose data is collected by OpenAI, but above all the absence of a legal basis justifying the mass collection and storage of personal data, with the aim of “causing ” the algorithms running the platform “. She also points out that ChatGPT “ suffered a loss of data on March 20 regarding user conversations and payment information for subscribers to the paid service “. OpenAI had briefly halted service after initial reports and acknowledged a bug in a third-party tool that affected 1.2% of its subscribers and an indefinite number of free users.
Appearing in November 2022, ChatGPT has quickly gained popularity thanks to its ability to clearly answer difficult questions, imitate human handwriting or produce computer code. Funded by the computer giant Microsoft, it is sometimes presented as a potential competitor to the Google search engine.
threat of sanctions
The Italian body is not at its first attempt, since it had already blocked for similar reasons, at the beginning of February, the Replika application which offers to chat with a virtual friend. Some users had complained of receiving too daring messages and images, close to sexual harassment.
The Italian Personal Data Protection Authority has asked OpenAI to ” communicate within 20 days the measures taken ” In order to remedy this situation, ” under pain of a penalty of up to 20 million euros or up to 4% of annual global turnover “, the maximum provided for by the European Regulation on personal data (GDPR), which has already resulted in billions of dollars in fines for the tech giants.
Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and one of the founders of OpenAI, as well as hundreds of world experts called for a six-month break, this Wednesday, March 29, in research on AIs more powerful than GPT- 4, the latest version of the software on which ChatGPT is based, launched in mid-March, citing ” major risks for humanity “.
This suspension of ChatGPT also demonstrates that artificial intelligence feeds fears that go beyond the mere exploitation of personal data. The European Union is already preparing a draft regulation which could be finalized by early 2024, for application in the coming years.
(With AFP)