ChatGPT in Trouble: Why has Italy blocked the AI chatbot?

Using ChatGPT is all the rage these days, but not in Italy – at least for now.

The country’s privacy watchdog has temporarily banned the popular artificial intelligence (AI) software over data privacy concerns.

Italian Data Protection Authority said on Friday (31 March) it would block and investigate OpenAI, the US start-up that developed ChatGPT, "with immediate effect", reported BBC.

The announcement has made Italy the first Western country to curb advanced chatbot ChatGPT, which is backed by Microsoft.

Let’s take a closer look at the reasons behind the ban.

Italy bars ChatGPT

The Italian Data Protection Authority said it was taking a provisional measure “until ChatGPT respects privacy”, including imposing an “immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data”.

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Listing out its reasons for the move, the Italian watchdog said OpenAI had no “legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data" to "train" the chatbot, reported Reuters.

The agency, also known as Garante, said that “a lack of age verification exposes children to receiving responses that are absolutely inappropriate to their age and awareness, even though the service is allegedly addressed to users aged above 13 according to OpenAI’s terms of service”, reported The Guardian.

Moreover, it also pointed out the data breach suffered by the chatbot on 20 March, which had exposed some "users' conversations" and personal details such as email addresses and the last four figures of their credit cards.

Italy's privacy watchdog said it has taken provisional action 'until ChatGPT respects privacy'. Reuters (Representational Image)

OpenAI had taken ChatGPT offline at the time, saying a bug needed to be fixed.

It also issued an apology and said it would "work diligently to rebuild trust”.

"Our investigation has also found that 1.2 per cent of ChatGPT Plus users might have had personal data revealed to another user," the San Francisco-based company said at the time, as per Deutsche Welle (DW).

"We believe the number of users whose data was actually revealed to someone else is extremely low and we have contacted those who might be impacted," it added.

Furthermore, the Italian watchdog also cited ChatGPT’s tendency to furnish inaccurate replies, saying “the information made available by ChatGPT does not always match factual circumstances, so that inaccurate personal data are processed”, reported The Guardian.

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ChatGPT no longer available for Italian users

The company said its practices are in line with European privacy laws, adding it intends to make the AI chatbot available soon for Italian users, reported Associated Press (AP).

Alp Toker, director of the advocacy group NetBlocks, which monitors internet access worldwide, told AP that Italy’s move is “the first nation-scale restriction of a mainstream AI platform by a democracy”.

The Italian watchdog also directed OpenAI to report within 20 days on the measures the company has taken to ensure the privacy of users' data or risk a fine of up to either 20 million euros (around $22 million) or four per cent of its annual global revenue.

ChatGPT has gained millions of users since its launch last November. AP

In its response, OpenAI said that it works "to reduce personal data in training our AI systems like ChatGPT because we want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals,” reported AP.

“We also believe that AI regulation is necessary — so we look forward to working closely with the Garante and educating them on how our systems are built and used,” it added.

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ChatGPT and its controversies

ChatGPT has become widely popular since its launch in November 2022, gathering millions of users in just four months. The chatbot can imitate human writing styles, and even write computer code – despite having no technical knowledge.

It has been used by users to create poems, essays and summaries of lengthy documents.

“We have trained a model called ChatGPT, which interacts in a conversational way,” OpenAI said about its chatbot earlier.

“The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.”

However, ChatGPT can also lift misinformation and present it as fact. There are also concerns about such AI systems eventually posing a threat to jobs as well as propagating misinformation and bias.

Some public schools and universities across the world have blocked the chatbot over plagiarism concerns.

ChatGPT is already blocked in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, noted BBC.

Earlier this week, more than 1,000 artificial intelligence experts, researchers and other key figures in tech, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, called for a pause on the development of “giant” AIs for at least six months in the wake of concerns that the race to develop such AI systems was creating “ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control".

With inputs from agencies

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