Italy on Friday said it was temporarily blocking ChatGPT over data privacy concerns, becoming the first Western country to take such action against the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
US firm OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, had no legal basis to justify “the mass collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of ‘training’ the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform,” the Italian Data Protection Authority said.
ChatGPT caused a global sensation when it was released last year, because of its ability to generate essays, songs, exams and even news articles from brief prompts.
Photo: Reuters
Yet critics have long fretted that it was unclear where ChatGPT and its competitors got their data from or how they processed it.
Universities and some education authorities have banned the chatbot over fears that students could use it to write essays or cheat in exams, while hundreds of experts and industry figures this week signed an open letter calling for a pause in the development of powerful AI systems, saying they posed “profound risks to society and humanity.”
The letter was prompted by OpenAI’s release earlier this month of GPT-4, a more powerful version of its chatbot, with even less transparency about its data sources.
OpenAI on Friday said that it has “disabled ChatGPT for users in Italy.”
“We are committed to protecting people’s privacy and we believe we comply with ... privacy laws. We actively work to reduce personal data in training our AI systems like ChatGPT, because we want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
“We also believe that AI regulation is necessary — so we look forward to working closely with [authorities in Italy] and educating them on how our systems are built and used,” the spokesperson said. “Our users in Italy have told us they find ChatGPT helpful for everyday tasks, and we look forward to making it available again soon.”
The Italian authority imposed a “temporary limitation of the processing of Italian user data” by OpenAI, and said that it had launched an investigation.
As well as a lack of legal basis for data collection, the authority also highlighted a lack of clarity over whose data was being collected.
It said wrong answers given by the chatbot suggested information was not being handled properly, and accused the firm of exposing children to “absolutely unsuitable answers.”
The watchdog further referenced a data breach on March 20, where user conversations and payment information were compromised — a problem the firm blamed on a bug.
Nello Cristianini, a professor of AI at the University of Bath in England, said that it is easy to secure user data and enforce age limits.
However, Cristianini said that the other two accusations are more problematic — that the model is trained on personal data that is gathered without consent and then not treated properly.
“It is not clear how these can be fixed anytime soon,” he said.
The company has been given 20 days to respond and could face a fine of 20 million euros (US$21.7 million) or up to 4 percent of annual revenue.
The runaway success of ChatGPT garnered OpenAI a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft, which uses the technology in its Bing search engine and other programs.
It also sparked a gold rush among other tech firms and venture capitalists, with Google hurrying out its own chatbot and investors pouring cash into all manner of AI projects.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS