Italy was the first in the world to block ChatGPT: what caused the ban of the chatbot with artificial intelligence

On Friday, March 31, the Italian National Authority for Personal Data Protection decided to block ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot. The reason for the ban was a data leak and lack of control over the use of the chatbot by children.

This is stated in the regulator's message. According to the decision, Italy has temporarily restricted the processing of data of local users of the American company OpenAI, which developed and manages the ChatGPT platform.

The reason for such a step was the leak of ChatGPT users' data on March 20, which resulted in the free access to information about requests and bank card numbers, as well as personal messages of paid subscribers of the service.

"In view of this, the Data Protection Authority notes insufficient informing of users and all interested parties whose data is collected by OpenAI, but above all, the lack of a legal framework justifying the mass collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of "training" the algorithms underlying the platform," the regulator said in a statement.

Other complaints include the lack of control over the use of chatbots by children under 13, and the fact that ChatGPT periodically provides information that does not correspond to actual data.

OpenAI has 20 days to respond to the decision of the Italian authorities. If it fails to do so, it faces a fine of 4% of annual turnover or 20 million euros, whichever is greater.

Thus, Italy has become the first country to take restrictive measures against chatbots, which have been growing rapidly in popularity in recent years.

OpenAI has not yet commented on the blocking.

As a reminder, ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a research laboratory that studies artificial intelligence. Elon Musk is among its co-owners.

The chatbot is able to generate texts on given topics and answer questions in an understandable language, do students' homework, and pass exams successfully. It is considered to be the most professional of its kind, although it can give false and biased answers.

ChatGPT has already been nicknamed the "killer of professions." The media predict that it will replace dozens of professions and leave millions of people unemployed.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, ChatGPT chatbot became available in Ukraine in February.

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