The firm that developed ChatGPT said on Friday that the artificial intelligence chatbot is once again accessible in Italy. This comes after the manufacturer complied with the requests of the authorities, who had temporarily restricted it due to privacy concerns.
OpenAI said that it has complied with a plethora of requirements that the Italian data protection authorities had to meet by a deadline of April 30 in order to have the prohibition on the AI software removed.
OpenAI, located in San Francisco, said in an email that ChatGPT is once again accessible to its users in Italy.
We are thrilled to have them back, and the protection of their privacy will continue to be a top priority for us.
Generative artificial intelligence systems, such as ChatGPT, which employ enormous pools of internet data such as digital books, blog posts, and other media to produce text, pictures, and other material emulating human labour, have generated buzz in the world of technology and beyond.
However, their rapid development has sparked concerns among government officials and even industry leaders about potential ethical and societal risks. As a result, negotiators from the European Union are rushing to update a draught of artificial intelligence regulations that they have been working on for years.
The Italian supervisory authority known as Garante issued an order to OpenAI last month instructing the company to temporarily cease processing the personal information of Italian users while it investigated a suspected data breach. The regulatory body said that it does not want to impede the development of AI but emphasised the need to adhere to the stringent data privacy standards of the European Union.
OpenAI has indicated that it has addressed or explained the concerns brought forth by the watchdog.
These efforts include adding information on its website about how it collects and uses data that trains the algorithms that run ChatGPT, giving users in the EU a new form that allows them to object to having their data used for training, and introducing a tool to check users’ ages when they sign up for an account with the service.
Some Italian users shared what appeared to be screenshots of the changes, which included what appeared to be a menu button asking users to confirm their age as well as links to the updated privacy policy and the training data help page.
The Garante issued a statement in which it expressed its approval of the procedures that OpenAI had put into effect and asked the firm to comply with two further requests. These demands were for an age-verification system and a publicity campaign in which Italians would be informed about the history of the situation as well as their ability to opt out of having their data processed.
A month ago, the watchdog discovered that the messages and payment details of certain users were shared with other users, which led to the imposition of the ban. It also raised concerns that the system could sometimes generate false information about individuals and questioned whether there was a legal basis for OpenAI to collect massive amounts of data that were used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms. Additionally, it questioned whether there was a legal basis for OpenAI to collect massive amounts of data that were used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms.
As a result of receiving complaints about ChatGPT, several authorities are now taking a closer look at the AI systems in question. Specifically, the data privacy authority in France and the privacy commissioner in Canada are conducting investigations.
This week, the Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, issued a stern warning that the United States government will not hesitate to take enforcement action against potentially harmful business practises involving artificial intelligence.
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