Italy bans ChatGPT because of data privacy issues.

Italian authorities have blocked Chatbot ChatGPT with immediate effect.
With this, Italy becomes the first nation in Europe to obstruct cutting-edge AI software, which, among other things, can simulate and elaborate human conversations.

On Friday (local time), the Italian data protection authority announced that it was blocking the Microsoft-backed chatbot created by US startup OpenAI and would look into whether it complied with the General Data Protection Regulation of the nation.

The Italian watchdog stated that a data breach affecting the conversations of ChatGPT users and data on payments made by service subscribers had been reported on March 20.

The ChatGPT protocol, established in November 2022, has been blocked in several nations, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

“There is no way for ChatGPT to carry on processing data against the law. The platform’s development and management company, OpenAI, was immediately temporarily restricted by the Italian SA from processing the data of Italian users. Additionally, the authority said that a fact-finding investigation into the case was started “according to a press release on its website.

The authority noted the need for more information provided to users and other interested parties whose data was collected by OpenAI. Still, it emphasized that there was no legal justification for the widespread collection and storage of personal information with the intention of “training” the platform’s operating algorithms.

The service is allegedly targeted at users over the age of 13 according to OpenAI’s terms of service, but the Italian SA emphasizes in its order that the absence of any age verification mechanism exposes children to receiving responses that are wholly inappropriate to their age and awareness.

OpenAI has a representative in the European Economic Area even though it is not officially established in the EU.

According to the Italian data protection authority, OpenAI must notify the authorities of its steps to comply with the order within 20 days, or else a fine of up to 20 million euros (4 percent of the company’s total annual global turnover) may be levied.

The Italian SA notes in its order that users and data subjects whose data is collected by Open AI are not given any information and, more importantly, that there does not appear to be any legal justification for the extensive collection and processing of personal data necessary to “train” the platform’s algorithms.

The Data Protection Authority of Italy stated that the information provided by ChatGPT does not always match factual circumstances and that, as a result, inaccurate personal data are processed. This has been confirmed by the tests that have been done so far.