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Italy Bans OpenAI’s ChatGPT

On Friday 31st March 2023, Italy’s data protection authority (DPA) announced that it would be banning ChatGPT in the country. The ban would be accompanied by an investigation with immediate effect. This comes a few days after key tech leaders including Tesla’s Elon Musk called for experiments on more powerful AI systems to be halted for at least six months.

In an official statement regarding the issue, the DPA claimed that on March 20th, Chat GPT had “suffered a data breach concerning users’ conversations and payment information of subscribers to the paid service”.

The DPA has therefore ordered ChatGPT and its creator, OpenAI to stop processing people’s data locally (in Italy) with immediate effect. This immediate ban also comes as a result of the DPA having concerns that OpenAI is breaching the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

More specifically, the Italian authority revealed that the block or ban was over concerns that OpenAI, through ChatGPT was unlawfully processing user data and that there were no measures n place set up to prevent minors from accessing the chatbot.

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After the statement was issued, OpenAI has 20 days to respond to the order to discontinue its services in Italy. Attached to the order are threats of probable penalties if OpenAI fails to comply.

This ban by Italy could have far more devastating consequences than meet the eye. Recently, there have been growing concerns over the security of ChatGPT’s user data. However, OpenAI, as reported by the BBC, OpenAI claims to be in total compliance with privacy laws.

As mentioned earlier, the Italian DPA has also accused OpenAI of breaching the European Union’s (EU) (GDPR). According to TechCrunch, OpenAI is yet to establish a legal entity in the European Union (EU).

What this means is that any nation’s data protection authority has the power to intervene (as Italy has done) if they see the local user is at risk. It is important to note that more nations could launch similar claims against OpenAI. That is if they find probable cause for such caution.

Another issue brought about is the heavy fines and penalties accrued. If the AI company is found guilty of breaching the EU’s GDPR, these fines could scale up to 4% of annual turnover, or €20 million, whichever is greater as per TechCrunch.