TheCable

The Italian government has banned ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool, over data privacy concerns.

Italy is the first country to restrict the use of ChatGPT since its popularity exploded globally in recent months.

On Friday, the Italian data protection agency announced that it would immediately block the chatbot from collecting Italian users’ data while authorities investigate OpenAI, the San-Francisco based company behind the ChatGPT.

It described the move as a temporary measure “until ChatGPT respects privacy”.

The agency, also known as Garante, accused OpenAI of failing to check the age of ChatGPT’s users who are supposed to be aged 13 or above.

Garante said OpenAI had “no legal basis” for using the data it had amassed “to train the algorithms that power the platform.”

The agency gave OpenAI an ultimatum of 20 days to respond to the order and provide the measures it has taken in response to its concerns.

Speaking on the development, OpenAI said it has disabled ChatGPT for Italian users at the government’s request.

The company said it believes it complies with privacy laws in Europe and would work closely with Italy’s privacy regulator.

“We are committed to protecting people’s privacy and we believe we comply with GDPR and other privacy laws,” OpenAI said.

“We actively work to reduce personal data in training our AI systems like ChatGPT because we want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals.”