Italy has blocked the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT, the Italian Government’s privacy watchdog has confirmed.
The Italian Data Protection Authority said the decision to block the artificial intelligence program was ‘until ChatGPT respects privacy.’
Italy took ChatGPT offline earlier this month due to a bug that allowed people to see other users’ chat history titles, or subject lines, sparking fears of a huge personal data breach.
The authority OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, must report to them within 20 days with measures taken om protecting privacy or face a $22 Million dollar fine.
The news comes after OpenAI admitted that 1.2 percent of ChatGPT Plus users may have had personal data revealed to other users.
The Italian watchdog’s measures include limiting the company from holding Italian users’ data.
It slammed “the lack of a notice to users and to all those involved whose data is gathered by OpenAI’ adding ChatGPT “doesn’t always correspond to real data, thus determining the keeping of inexact personal data.”
The authority also criticized the “absence of a juridicial basis that justified the massive gathering and keeping of personal data.”
AI tools like ChatGPT can mimic human writing styles based on archives of digital books and online writings they have ingested.
However, leading tech insiders and scientists have called for OpenAI to pause the development to give time for society to weigh the risks.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk and more than 1,000 tech researchers called for a six-month “pause” on developing advanced artificial intelligence systems decribing it as a “dangerous” arms race.
An open letter published on Wednesday by the Future of Life Institute was signed by more than 1,100 individuals from across academia.
“Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” the letter stated.
