Trento Faces First AI Penalty in Italy

The Italian Data Protection Authority fined the city of Trento 50,000 euros for violating data privacy laws in two AI research projects.

The Italian Data Protection Authority has issued a press release announcing that the city of Trento, located in Italy, has become the first city in the country to be penalized for its inappropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Trento was involved in two scientific research projects that violated data privacy legislation and utilized artificial intelligence. These programs involved the use of cameras, microphones, and social networks.

The Italian data watchdog organization levied a fine of 50,000 euros ($54,373) against the Trento, making it the first municipal authority in Italy to receive a reprimand.

The Italian privacy authority acknowledged that the municipality had acted in good faith however, it discovered that the data obtained was not sufficiently anonymous, nor was it shared with third parties appropriately.

“The [Italian Data Protection Authority] condemned the massive and invasive processing methods put in place, which entailed significant risks for the rights and freedoms of the interested parties, including those of a constitutional nature.”

According to reports, the municipality of Trento has stated that it is contemplating filing an appeal against the decision. The municipality has said that the steps taken by the regulator “highlight how the current legislation is insufficient to regulate the use of artificial intelligence to analyze large amounts of data and improve city security.”

In its interactions with the development of artificial intelligence, the Italian government has taken a proactive approach. It was in March 2023 that Italy became the first government to implement a ban on the widely used artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, which OpenAI developed.

Even though it lifted the prohibition after OpenAI was satisfied with the local transparency requirements, Italy maintained a cautious stance about digital technologies.

In May 2023, the government established a fund consisting of several millions of dollars for employees who are at risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence.

Shortly after that, during a debate in the Italian parliament, an Italian senator utilized OpenAI’s GPT-4 to generate a speech to make a point regarding the application of artificial intelligence and to start a “serious debate” about the technology in the country.

To prevent artificial intelligence data scraping, Italian regulators initiated an inquiry into the security policies of public and private websites in November.

Most recently on January 5th, Italy announced that it intends to address artificial intelligence legislation as one of its primary goals, even though it will be holding the presidency of the G7 in June of this year.