Move FM Global News

ROME, Italy: OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot met the demands of regulators who temporarily blocked it over privacy concerns, and is again available again in Italy.

San Francisco-based OpenAI said it met conditions imposed by the Italian data protection authority before the deadline of 30th April to have the ban on its AI software lifted.

“ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy. We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy,” the company said in an email.

ChatGPT and other generative AI systems use online data, such as digital books, blog posts and other media, to generate text, images and other content mimicking human work, and have attracted considerable media attention in recent months.

However, they have also caused ethical and social concerns among officials and even some tech leaders, causing European Union negotiators to hurriedly update draft artificial intelligence (AI) regulations that have been stuck in limbo for many years.

Last month, the Italian watchdog, the Garante, announced it was investigating a possible data breach and ordered OpenAI to temporarily stop processing Italian users’ personal information.

Officials said they did not want to hamper AI development, but emphasized the importance of following the EU’s strict data privacy rules, it added.

In response, OpenAI said it had “addressed or clarified the issues” raised by Garante, by implementing measures such as adding information on its website about how it collects and uses data that trains the algorithms powering ChatGPT, and adopting a tool to verify users’ ages when signing up.

In a statement, Garante said that it “welcomes the measures OpenAI implemented.”

In March, it imposed the ban on the AI platform after finding that some users’ messages and payment information were available online.