The creator of ChatGPT announced on Friday that the artificial intelligence chatbot is once again available in Italy after the business complied with regulators’ requests to temporarily block it due to privacy concerns.
By the deadline of April 30, according to OpenAI, the Italian data protection authority wanted a number of requirements to be met before lifting the ban on the AI software.
San Francisco-based OpenAI wrote in an email that “ChatGPT is once more available to our users in Italy.” We are happy to have them back and will continue to respect their privacy.
The tech industry and beyond have taken notice of generative AI systems like ChatGPT, which produce text, images, and other content that imitates human work using vast online data sources like digital books, blog posts, and other media.
However, their quick development has raised concerns about potential ethical and societal risks among officials and even tech leaders, and European Union negotiators are scrambling to update draft artificial intelligence regulations that have been in the works for years.
Last month, the Italian watchdog Garante issued a directive ordering OpenAI to temporarily cease processing the personal data of Italian users while it looked into a potential data breach.
The authority claimed it didn’t want to obstruct AI’s advancement but emphasized the significance of abiding by the stringent data privacy laws of the EU.
It was claimed by OpenAI that it “addressed or clarified the issues” brought up by the watchdog.
Along with providing EU users with a new form to object to having their data used for training, the measures also include adding information to its website about how it gathers and uses data that trains the algorithms powering ChatGPT. Finally, a tool to confirm users’ ages when signing up has also been added.
A menu button asking users to confirm their age and links to the updated privacy policy and training data help page were among the changes that some Italian users shared in what appeared to be screenshots of the changes.
The Garante said in a statement that it “welcomes the measures OpenAI implemented” and urged the business to abide by two additional requests for an age-verification system and a public awareness campaign to educate Italians about the background and their right to object to data processing.
After discovering that some users’ messages and payment information had been made available to others, the watchdog imposed the ban last month. It also questioned whether OpenAI had the right to gather the enormous amounts of data used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms and raised concerns that the system might occasionally produce inaccurate information about particular people.
Following complaints about ChatGPT, the data privacy regulator in France and the privacy commissioner in Canada are now taking a closer look at such AI systems.
This week, Lina Khan, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, issued a warning that the American government would “not hesitate to crack down” on unethical business practices involving artificial intelligence.
