Italy has become the first Western country to temporarily ban ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence system developed by the US-based OpenAI. It was prompted by a data breach that occurred on March 20, which resulted in the company’s breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In response, the Italian data protection agency Garante has ordered OpenAI to cease offering access to the system within its borders.
Now, nine measures have been announced for OpenAI to comply with in order to lift the ban. These include publishing an information notice for data processing, a set of tools for users and non-users to control their data, an age gate to filter out underage users, and a “non-marketing” campaign to inform Italians that their data may have been used for the AI system’s training. OpenAI is given until April 30 to fulfill most of its demands, while until May 15 and May 31 are given for the campaign promotion and the age verification system, respectively.
OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco best known for developing large scale and sophisticated language models. Founded in 2018, the company seeks to build a world where artificial general intelligence and digital intelligence benefit people, not harm them. Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have been associated as OpenAI’s co-founders.
Garante is an Italian administrative authority and independent body responsible for governing the processing of personal data, protecting and guaranteeing the data freedom procedures in Italy. As the president, Antonello Soro is tasked to ensure the regulation of GDPR rules and other privacy matters in the country. He is a former judge, who also served as the president of the Information Commissioner and the National Anti-Corruption Authority.
