LI Network
Published on: 30 January, 2024 at 12:00 IST
Italy’s data protection authority announced on Monday that it has informed OpenAI that its artificial intelligence chatbot application, ChatGPT, violates data protection regulations.
The Italian watchdog, known as Garante, recognized as one of the European Union’s most active entities in evaluating AI platform compliance with the bloc’s data privacy regulations, briefly prohibited ChatGPT last year due to an alleged breach of EU privacy rules.
The regulator initiated an investigation at that time, and it has now concluded, identifying elements suggestive of one or more potential privacy violations, according to a statement.
Garante stated that Microsoft-backed OpenAI has 30 days to present its defense arguments. The investigation will also consider the findings of a European task force comprising national privacy watchdogs.
Reuters reached out to OpenAI for comment, but there is no response reported yet.
Italy was the first West European country to take action against ChatGPT, a rapidly evolving AI system that has drawn attention from lawmakers and regulators.
Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in 2018, companies found to be in violation of the rules could face fines of up to 4% of their global turnover.
In December, EU lawmakers and governments reached provisional terms for regulating AI systems like ChatGPT, marking a significant step toward establishing rules governing the technology.