Italian Regulators Notify OpenAI of GDPR Violations by ChatGPT AI Chatbot

Italian regulators have informed OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, that its ChatGPT chatbot has violated the European Union's (EU) stringent data privacy rules. The country's data protection authority, known as Garante, announced on Monday that it had notified OpenAI of breaches of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The investigation into ChatGPT began last year when the watchdog temporarily banned the chatbot within Italy due to concerns over its ability to generate text, images, and sound in response to users' queries.

Following a "fact-finding activity," Garante concluded that there were indeed breaches of the EU privacy rules based on the available evidence. OpenAI has been given 30 days to respond to the allegations. The company stated that it would cooperate with Italian regulators and believes its practices align with GDPR and other privacy laws. OpenAI emphasized that it takes additional measures to protect individuals' data and privacy, asserting that its AI systems like ChatGPT are designed to learn about the world rather than private individuals. The company also stated that it actively works to minimize the use of personal data in training its AI systems and rejects requests for private or sensitive information about individuals.

Last year, OpenAI fulfilled several conditions set by Garante to lift the ban on ChatGPT. The watchdog imposed the ban after discovering that some users' messages and payment information were exposed and because ChatGPT lacked a system to verify users' ages, allowing inappropriate content to be accessed by children. Garante also raised concerns about the legal basis for OpenAI's collection of massive amounts of data used to train ChatGPT's algorithms and the potential for the system to generate false information about individuals.

The increasing popularity of generative AI systems like ChatGPT has attracted scrutiny from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an inquiry into the relationships between AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have provided financial support, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Additionally, competition regulators in the EU and Britain are examining Microsoft's investments in OpenAI. The EU, in particular, is finalizing its groundbreaking AI Act, which will establish comprehensive regulations for artificial intelligence.

OpenAI has not yet responded to requests for comment. The EU's 27 member states are expected to vote on the legislation on Friday, indicating their approval.