Italy’s Ban on ChatGPT Sparks Controversy as Local Industry Spars With Silicon Valley on Other Matters
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Italian government’s decision on Friday to ban artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT – becoming the world’s first country to block the chatbot – is sparking local controversy.
The move is being criticized within the government itself just as Italy’s entertainment industry is up in arms against Silicon Valley on several other fronts.
Italy’s Data Protection Authority on Friday said it had ordered California-based OpenAI to temporarily block the country’s internet users from gaining access to ChatGPT following a verified data breach that it claims represents a possible violation of European Union data protection rules.
According to the Italian government watchdog, OpenAI has been illegally gathering personal data from Italian customers involving ChatGPT “users’ conversations” and information about subscriber payments and did not have an age-verification system in place, exposing children to responses from the chatbot that are “absolutely inappropriate to their age and awareness,” it said in a statement.
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