The European Union (EU) data protection regulator announced the creation of a task force on Thursday to help its member states grapple with the rapidly growing popularity of the ChatGPT AI chatbot, a product developed by OpenAI, an American company based in San Francisco. Recently, Italy temporarily banned the ChatGPT due to allegations that its data-gathering activities violated privacy laws. France’s data protection authority, CNIL, initiated a formal procedure to address the five complaints it received in relation to use of ChatGPT. Similarly, Spain’s AEPD data protection agency started its own investigation of the underlying software and its US maker, OpenAI.
ChatGPT can generate essays, poems, and conversations from mere prompts. It recently passed a number of challenging exams without any difficulty. However, the chatbot has been facing criticism from various quarters. People are concerned that its capabilities might be used for cheating in schools and spreading online disinformation. Besides, since the chatbot requires plentiful information for training purposes, there are pressing questions about the data source and data handling by OpenAI.
Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), any system that collects personal data is obliged to offer that information accurately. Following this, Italy requested OpenAI to provide justification for the data-collection activities last month; France’s CNIL has been dealing with five complaints, one of which was filed by the Member of Parliament Eric Bothorel, which was regarding the invention of personal details associated with him by ChatGPT (birthdate, job history). Reacting to Italy’s banning of ChatGPT, OpenAI stated that it is committed to Data Protection, and is confident that the tool is compliant with the laws and regulations.
In the wake of Italy’s order, The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) launched a specialized task force with the aim of facilitating cooperation and exchanging information concerning possible enforcement actions taken by different data privacy authorities in the EU.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence firm, established in 2015 as a for-profit limited liability corporation. The OpenAI firm’s main goal is to deeply research and develop new and more effective artificial intelligence technologies. It was co-founded by tech luminaries such as Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and Sam Altman, with the primary objective of ensuring that AI technologies are beneficial to people and the world. The OpenAI team comprises of some of the best experts in the field, who actively engage in research, development, and programming of new and advanced AI technologies.
Eric Bothorel is a French Politician and a member of the National Assembly, representing the Mayenne, France constituency. He is a member of La République En Marche!, a centrist political party. He has been a Member of the National Assembly of France since 2017. Eric Bothorel has been an advocate for responsible data-sharing and rules-based development of AI-Neural networks.
