Italians Ban ChatGPT, Will Similar Actions Follow in the Rest of Europe?

Italians have temporarily banned ChatGPT!

Specifically, the first line of defense for GDPR in Italy, the National Data Protection Authority, has requested and approved a block, as well as an investigation into OpenAI’s chatbot because, according to the opinion of that institution, the chatbot processes data of Italian users. The order is temporary until the company complies with the key EU privacy law, namely the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Moreover, Italy already banned the Replika.ai chatbot, which is based on artificial intelligence, back in February, and the owners of ChatGPT have twenty days to convince the Italian regulator that they are not violating anyone’s privacy. If they fail to do so, they face a fine of up to twenty million euros.

Calls to suspend new releases of ChatGPT due to a range of privacy, cybersecurity, and misinformation risks are growing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Six-Month Pause

Last week, the biggest names in the technology sector, including Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who himself participated in building OpenAI’s business model, called for a halt to types of systems based on artificial intelligence due to fears that the race for their development has gotten out of control.

An open letter signed by more than 1,000 artificial intelligence experts, researchers, and financiers joined the call for an immediate pause in the creation of “giant” AIs for at least six months, so that the capabilities and dangers of systems like GPT-4 can be properly studied and mitigated. Besides Musk, the request was signed by Emad Mostaque, who founded Stability AI based in London, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, as well as numerous experts from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, along with cognitive scientist Gary Marcus.

– In recent months, we have witnessed how artificial intelligence labs are engaged in an uncontrolled race with the development and introduction of increasingly powerful digital minds that no one, not even their creators, can understand, predict, or reliably control. Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are sure that their effects will be positive and that the risks can be managed – states the open letter.

Investigate Chatbots!

In light of this fact, it would not be overly surprising if other countries soon follow Italy’s example and ban ChatGPT, especially since after the Italian move, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) called on all EU authorities to investigate major AI chatbots.

ChatGPT is, for example, already unavailable in numerous countries, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.