OpenAI’s ChatGPT reenters Italy after obliging transparency demands

The revocation of the ban in Italy required ChatGPT to reveal its data processing practices and implement age-gating measures, among other legal requirements.

Popular interactive artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, has had its ban on providing services in Italy lifted after addressing the privacy concerns raised by the country’s data protection agency, Garante.

On March 31, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was temporarily banned in Italy after the watchdog suspected the AI chatbot violated the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Precisely 29 days after the ban, on April 29, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that ChatGPT was “available in Italy again” without revealing the steps taken by the company to comply with the Italian regulator’s transparency demands.

we’re excited chatgpt is available in again!

— Sam Altman (@sama) April 28, 2023

The revocation of the ban required ChatGPT to reveal its data processing practices and implement age-gating measures, among other legal requirements. As highlighted by the Italian regulator, the temporary ban came in response to a recent data breach suffered by ChatGPT on March 20.

We took ChatGPT offline Monday to fix a bug in an open source library that allowed some users to see titles from other users’ chat history. Our investigation has also found that 1.2% of ChatGPT Plus users might have had personal data revealed to another user. 1/2

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 24, 2023

While the abrupt ban initially raised possibilities about a wave of AI regulations, the willingness of ChatGPT to swiftly comply with local authorities is seen as an overall positive move, widely welcomed by its users globally.

European Union legislators are working on a new bill to monitor AI developments.

As Cointelegraph reported, the bill aims to classify AI tools according to the perceived risk levels based on their capability. The risk levels range from minimal to unacceptable. According to the bill, high-risk tools will not be banned entirely but will be subjected to stricter transparency requirements.

If signed into law, generative AI tools, including ChatGPT and Midjourney, will be subject to disclosure of the use of copyrighted materials in AI training.

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