Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne announced an interprovincial investigation into ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, at the Canada Privacy Symposium in 2023. His announcement sparked an investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and their provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta, and Québec. This event is significant as it marks the first time that Canadian authorities have launched an investigation to address potential privacy infringements associated with a chatbot.
ChatGPT, otherwise known as OpenAI’s Interactive Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is an AI-powered conversational assistant that draws on context-specific data to respond to users’ inputs. OpenAI created the technology to assist people in performing a variety of tasks online. While the technology promises to provide a revolutionary level of convenience, authorities have raised concerns about the potential privacy risks associated with its use.
The aim of the investigation is to assess the legitimacy of ChatGPT’s collection of users’ personal information. This includes evaluating the appropriateness, reasonable, and legitimacy of the data the chatbot is collecting, using, and sharing, as well as determining whether user privacy is adequately protected.
The Privacy Commissioner has encouraged OpenAI and its attorneys to cooperate with the ongoing investigation. While the investigation is currently at the early stages, OpenAI has shown a willingness to cooperate.
ChatGPT’s potential to transform user experiences has been likened to a Pandora’s box. It’s encouraging to see that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, in cooperation with the provincial authorities, is taking appropriate steps to assure user privacy through its investigation. Their efforts reaffirm the importance of protecting personal information during the dawn of the age of AI.
