Italy blocks ChatGPT for not respecting data law – 03/31/2023 – Tech

The Italian authorities announced this Friday (31) the decision to block ChatGPT, accused of not respecting the legislation on personal data and of not having a system to verify the age of minor users.

With immediate effect, the decision results in the provisional limitation of the processing of data of Italian users in relation to OpenAI, creator of the chatbot, informed the national authority for the protection of personal data, in a statement.

ChatGPT appeared in November and was quickly adopted by users who were impressed with its ability to clearly answer difficult questions, write sonnets, and even pass exams.

In its statement, the Italian authority points out that the system “suffered, on March 20, a loss of data (‘data Breach’) on user conversations and information relating to the payment of customers of the subscription service”.

The watchdog also criticizes it for the lack of an informative note for users whose data is collected by OpenAI, but, above all, for the absence of a legal basis that justifies the mass collection and storage of personal data, with the aim of to “train” the algorithms that make the platform work.

In addition, although the robot is intended for people over 13 years old, the authority points out that the absence of any filter to verify the age of users exposes minors to responses that are absolutely not in line with their level of development.

The entity asks OpenAI to communicate, within a period of 20 days, the measures adopted to remedy this situation, under penalty of a fine of up to 20 million euros (US$ 21.75 million, R$ 111.4 million), or up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover.

This announcement comes after Europol (European police agency) warned, on Monday (16), that criminals were willing to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence, such as ChatGPT, to commit fraud and other cyber crimes.