This decision was made following a data breach in March which exposed ChatGPT users’ conversations and and other sensitive information.
Generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, collect data to further fine-tune and train their own models. Italy sees this data collection as a potential breach of user privacy and, as a result, has banned ChatGPT in the country.
On Friday, the Italian Data Protection Authority released a statement imposing an immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data by OpenAI.
The two major concerns the ban is trying to address are unauthorized user data collection and the lack of age verification, which exposes children to responses that are «absolutely inappropriate to their age and awareness,» according to the release.
