After addressing the privacy issues mentioned by Italy’s data protection authority, Garante, the widely used interactive artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT has resumed offering services there.
As a result of suspicions that the AI chatbot had broken the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) of the European Union, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was temporarily prohibited in Italy on March 31.
On April 29, 29 days after the ban, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared that ChatGPT was “available in Italy again” without disclosing the business’s actions to meet the Italian regulator’s requirements for transparency.
we’re excited chatgpt is available in 🇮🇹 again!
— Sam Altman (@sama) April 28, 2023
In addition to other legal obligations, lifting the prohibition requires ChatGPT to disclose its data processing procedures and adopt age-gating safeguards. The temporary restriction was imposed due to a recent data breach experienced by ChatGPT on March 20, as noted by the Italian regulator.
We took ChatGPT offline Monday to fix a bug in an open source library that allowed some users to see titles from other users’ chat history. Our investigation has also found that 1.2% of ChatGPT Plus users might have had personal data revealed to another user. 1/2
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 24, 2023
While the sudden ban initially raised concerns about a wave of AI regulations, ChatGPT’s willingness to act quickly to comply with local authorities is generally favorable. Its users around the world warmly embrace it.
Legislators in the European Union are drafting a new bill to track advancements in AI.
The law categorizes artificial intelligence (AI) products based on their assessed risk levels and functionalities. The level of risk range from negligible to intolerable.
The measure states that while high-risk technologies won’t be outlawed entirely, they will be subject to stronger disclosure regulations.
If passed into law, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney will be required to disclose when they use elements protected by intellectual property.