Mama Mia! Italy Has Banned ChatGPT!

This is a spicy meatball.

Vogue AI-talia

The anti-artificial intelligence push continues in Italy, which just moved to temporarily ban OpenAI's ChatGPT pending a data privacy investigation.

The Italian Data Protection Authority announced in a press release today that it has blocked ChatGPT and opened an investigation into OpenAI over concerns about the way the company processes user data after a data breach in March led to the leak of users' chatlogs and credit card information.

"In its order, the [agency] highlights that no information is provided to users and data subjects whose data are collected by OpenAI," the English version of the press release reads. "More importantly, there appears to be no legal basis underpinning the massive collection and processing of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform relies."

Along with the data breach, the agency also cited OpenAI's apparent failure to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the landmark European Union privacy law that greatly restricts companies' ability to collect data on EU residents, as one of its reasons for the ban.

Replikator

As Futurism readers may recall, this is the second time in recent months that Italian data privacy regulators have put the kibosh on an AI service.

In early February, the same agency banned the AI chatbot "companion" app Replika over what it said were similarly shady data collection practices.

Soon after, Replika stopped offering sexual chats (which, to be fair, had their own issues), though those ended up coming back online last weekend. It doesn't, however, appear that Italy has un-blocked the app yet.

Like with its Replika ban, the GDPR also cited concerns over children being exposed to inappropriate material on ChatGPT as another of its reasons for instituting its ban and opening an investigation.

More on AI issues: GPT-4 Was Deeply Racist Before OpenAI Muzzled It