Italian Authorities Plan to Review Other AI Platforms, Following ChatGPT Ban

Italian authorities revealed that it is planning to review other artificial intelligence platforms by hiring experts in an effort to ramp up scrutiny of the powerful technology, following the temporary ban of OpenAI's ChatGPT last March.

Reviewing Other AI Platforms

The Italian Data Protection Authority revealed its plans on reviewing other AI platforms and tools after imposing a temporary ban on OpenAI's ChatGPT last March. According to a report from Reuters, three AI experts trained in the field of law will be hired by the agency to supplement its staff.

Garante Board Member Agositino Ghiglia stated that once the review is done, the authorities will start new probes if needed. "We plan to kick off a wide-scope review of generative and machine learning AI applications which are available online because we want to understand if these new tools are addressing issues linked to data protection and privacy laws compliance," he stated.

This move is the latest effort from the agency, an example of how regulators rely on existing laws to control a technology that could abuse the way society and a business operate. Ghiglia added that the board is made up of law experts with 144 staff, well below its EU peers in France, Spain, and Britain.

Garante is known as one of the most proactive 31 national data protection authorities that oversee the General Data Protection Regulation. Silicon reported that this is also the first agency to impose a ban on AI chatbot company Replika last February, impose fines on facial recognition software maker Clearview AI, and impose restrictions on TikTok in Europe.

The board members are often becoming aware of the potential breaches of privacy laws, as they simply explore digital tools and applications once it becomes popular and available in the market. Adding to this is that several tools powered by artificial intelligence are evolving quickly, hence, why the agency realized ChatGPT's non-compliance with EU data privacy rules.

ChatGPT's Temporary Ban

Last month, Italy announced that it has temporarily banned the use of ChatGPT after a data breach investigation. Provisional action was taken by the agency as the platform was believed not to respect privacy, including limiting the company's investigation of users' data in the country.

This marks the first nation-scale restriction of a popular artificial intelligence platform by a democracy. While other software applications gained their licenses with OpenAI to use the same technology as Microsoft's Bing search engine, the authorities clarified that it would not be affected by the restriction as it will only apply to the web version.

OpenAI was given 20 days by the authorities to report on the steps to protect the privacy of user data. Following the ban, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini voiced his disapproval of this decision as it sounded disproportionate. He stated that the action was hypocritical, as it is common knowledge that privacy problems touch almost all internet businesses.

Weeks after the ban, ChatGPT is back online in the country after the platform acknowledged and addressed the mentioned flaws by the agency. OpenAI is obliged to provide greater transparency to allow users to opt out of having their content used for training models.