The European Union’s main data protection agency announced Thursday the formation of a task force devoted to ChatGPT, a highly popular AI chatbot developed by the American software company OpenAI. In response to claims that this program violates privacy laws, Italy has already imposed restrictions on the program, and France and Spain have begun their own investigations.
CNIL, France’s primary data protection agency, has already started a case against ChatGPT based on five complaints, one from Member of Parliament Eric Bothorel whose details, such as his date of birth and job history, were apparently fabricated by the bot. Under GDPR, chatbot and other AI systems are required to provide accurate personal data.
Enforcing the regulations of GDPR, Italy has set out a list of conditions that OpenAI must meet in order to enter the country again. The European Data Protection Board’s decision to form the task force was motivated by these same regulations.
OpenAI has responded to the obstacles presented by Italy in a statement to AFP, claiming that ChatGPT’s purpose is to protect people’s privacy and that they believe their software to be within the boundaries of the law.
OpenAI is a software company with its head office located in San Francisco. It was founded in 2018 by entrepreneur and investor Sam Altman, as well as tech luminaries such as Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman. It is best known for its AI program, GPT-3, which has been used for natural language processing, autocomplete of works, summarization, and open-ended conversational problem solving.
Eric Bothorel is a Member of the French Parliament. He is a member of the Centre of Social Democrats and is best known for his advocacy in favour of decentralisation and support of regional economies. In early 2021, he submitted a complaint to the CNIL about an AI bot inventing personal details such as his birth date and job history.
