On March 31st, the Italian authorities issued an order concerning the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, owned by OpenAI, an American company. This came in response to a data leak that revealed the chat histories and financial records of some users. The Garante, the Italian data protection authority, found the use of such large amounts of personal data to be concerning.
Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are just a few of the technology professionals who signed an open letter on March 28th, urging Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs to cease any further development of AI systems being trained to exceed the GPT-4 level for a six month time period. This further adds to the regulation that the Garante is placing on OpenAI, as well as the rest of the industry.
OpenAI has twenty days from the resolution to inform the Garante of the changes they will make in order to comply with the Garante’s recommendations. If they are found to be ignoring this order, they could face fines that could be up to 20 million euros or 4% of their total annual profit according to General Data Protection Regulation.
OpenAI is an American start-up focused on Artificial Intelligence. Founded in 2015 by a group of influential scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs with a mission to advance the state of AI and understand its impacts on the world, it has received strong industry support—including investments from Microsoft and its co-founders Elon Musk and Sam Altman. It has achieved a number of major breakthroughs in AI technology in recent years, including the development of the GPT-3 language model.
Elon Musk is a billionaire entrepreneur, best known for his landmark achievements with PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company. According to Forbes, he is one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world. Musk also actively engages in AI research, striving to make strides in general purpose AI for the betterment of mankind. In addition to co-founding OpenAI, he has invested in numerous AI companies that aim to move the needle on automation.
The order from the Italian authorities serves as a reminder of the importance of using AI responsibly and ethically. The combination of the influential open letter from tech professionals and information security safeguards from the regulators has highlighted the value of using AI safely and transparently. With caution and accountability, the industry can continue to move forward with the potential for a safe, secure AI-enabled future.
