World News | OpenAI: ChatGPT returns to Italy after satisfying watchdog demands

ROME, April 28 (AP) — The maker of ChatGPT said Friday that an artificial intelligence chatbot is available again in Italy after the company satisfied regulators, which temporarily blocked it over privacy concerns.

OpenAI said it met a series of conditions that Italy’s data protection agency wanted to meet by an April 30 deadline to lift a ban on artificial intelligence software.

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“ChatGPT is once again available to our users in Italy,” San Francisco-based OpenAI said via email.

“We are delighted to welcome them back and we remain committed to protecting their privacy.”

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Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, which use vast amounts of online data such as digital books, blog posts and other media to generate text, images and other content that mimic the work of humans, are making waves in the tech world and beyond.

But their rapid development has raised concerns among officials and even tech leaders about possible moral and social risks, with EU negotiators scrambling to update draft AI regulations that have been in the works for years.

Last month, Italian regulator Garante ordered OpenAI to temporarily stop processing the personal information of Italian users while it investigates a possible data breach. The agency said it did not want to hinder the development of artificial intelligence, but stressed the importance of complying with the EU’s strict data privacy rules.

OpenAI said it “addressed or clarified” the issues raised by regulators.

These include adding information on its website about how it collects and uses data to train the ChatGPT algorithm, providing a new form for EU users to object to the use of their data for training, and adding a tool to verify users’ age when they sign up.

Some Italian users shared screenshots of what appeared to be changes, including a menu button asking users to confirm their age and links to an updated privacy policy and training data help page.

Garante said in a statement that it “welcomes the measures implemented by OpenAI” and urged the company to comply with two other requirements of the age verification system, as well as a campaign to inform Italians of the stories behind them and how they opted out of data processing. right.

The regulator imposed the ban last month after it was discovered that some users’ messaging and payment information had been leaked to others. It also questioned whether OpenAI had a legal basis for collecting large amounts of data to train its ChatGPT algorithm, and raised concerns that the system sometimes generates false information about individuals.

Other regulators are now keeping a close eye on such AI systems, with France’s data privacy watchdog and Canada’s privacy commissioner launching investigations after receiving complaints about ChatGPT.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan warned this week that the U.S. government will “not hesitate to crack down” on harmful business practices involving artificial intelligence. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)