OpenAI gives in to Italy’s data privacy demands, ending ChatGPT ban

Italy requested a PSA showing users how to opt out of ChatGPT data sharing.

In March, an Italian privacy regulator temporarily banned OpenAI's ChatGPT, worried that the text generator had no age-verification controls or any "legal basis" for gathering online user data to train the AI tool's algorithms. The regulator gave OpenAI until April 30 to fix these issues, and last Friday, OpenAI announced it had implemented many of the requested changes ahead of schedule. In a statement to the Associated Press, OpenAI confirmed that Italy has lifted the ban.

"ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy," OpenAI's statement said. "We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy.”

OpenAI made several concessions to the Italian Data Protection Authority to bring ChatGPT back to Italy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

First, OpenAI agreed to better inform users about how ChatGPT processes their data and to create an online form so that users can opt out and remove their data from ChatGPT's training algorithms. Then, OpenAI agreed to require Italian users to provide their birth date at sign-up, which will assist OpenAI's effort to identify and block ChatGPT users under 13 years old or request parental permissions for users under 18.

But just because the ban is lifted, that doesn't mean the Italian regulator's investigation is over. OpenAI is still expected to work on implementing the rest of the demands—including launching a publicity campaign to inform ChatGPT users about how the tool really works and to explain how to opt out of data sharing, the WSJ reported. Ars could not immediately reach OpenAI to comment, but an OpenAI spokesperson told the AP that the company would "look forward to ongoing constructive discussions" until Italy's investigation concludes.

Italy's temporary ban became one of the first nationwide efforts to restrict access to ChatGPT, arriving just after the tool became the fastest-growing app of all time. In just two months, ChatGPT attracted 100 million monthly active users—surpassing apps like TikTok, which took nine months to reach that level of mass adoption, and Instagram, which took 2.5 years, Time reported. Since its release, ChatGPT has evolved and introduced more user protections as concerns were flagged after its first major data leak. Now, ChatGPT allows users to disable chat history, decline training, and export data. However, despite OpenAI's seeming responsiveness to reported issues, ChatGPT's sudden arrival has left lawmakers scrambling to adjust laws in the face of the app's widespread adoption.

Governments debate how to regulate AI

Likely motivated to continue attracting more users worldwide, OpenAI moved quickly to appease the Italian Data Protection Authority after the regulator showed how suddenly ChatGPT could be restricted. Italy heightened the stakes by escalating its response to perceived AI risks, and some generative AI critics have urged governments globally to step in swiftly, as Italy did, and even "pause" AI development completely until regulators can catch up. These critics claim that companies are in a race to capture the AI market and can't be depended upon to self-regulate and mitigate known risks amid stiff competition.

The case in Italy seems like a win for those on the side of passing more AI-specific regulations globally, but not every government agrees that more laws are needed to adequately protect users from irresponsible AI development. Some lawmakers that drafted AI-specific legislation are already taking a step back to reconsider their entire AI strategy after realizing the law failed to account for emerging technologies like ChatGPT.

The European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union are "going back to the drawing board" to redraft the Artificial Intelligence Act, Politico reported. Originally drafted to regulate AI applications like social scoring, manipulation, or facial recognition, the EU's AI Act is now being reconfigured as lawmakers consider how tools like ChatGPT should be factored in. One problem, Politico reports, is that divided lawmakers can't decide if the text generator should be deemed "high risk," as it can be used in both benign ways—to write a birthday card to grandma, for instance—and malignant ways.

In the US, some regulatory bodies are resisting the urge to draft new laws for AI. Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a joint statement, saying that "existing legal authorities apply to the use of automated systems and innovative new technologies."

According to these US regulators, lawmakers already have the power to prevent AI technologies from causing harm, like automated unlawful discrimination or algorithms perpetuating unlawful bias. For example, the Federal Trade Commission "has required firms to destroy algorithms or other work product that were trained on data that should not have been collected." In the statement, the FTC warned companies producing AI technologies that "it may violate the FTC Act to use automated tools that have discriminatory impacts, to make claims about AI that are not substantiated, or to deploy AI before taking steps to assess and mitigate risks."

“We already see how AI tools can turbocharge fraud and automate discrimination, and we won’t hesitate to use the full scope of our legal authorities to protect Americans from these threats,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a press release. “Technological advances can deliver critical innovation—but claims of innovation must not be cover for lawbreaking. There is no AI exemption to the laws on the books, and the FTC will vigorously enforce the law to combat unfair or deceptive practices or unfair methods of competition.”

Experts told Fast Company that the US regulators' joint statement served as an "excellent rebuttal" to tech companies arguing that self-regulation is the only way to ensure companies can innovate at a competitive rate. Instead, these US regulators have issued a bold statement to tech companies that just because their tools are new does not mean they're immune to existing laws.

To other experts, the statement was also seen as a rebuttal against the notion that regulators need to create AI-specific laws to provide adequate oversight.

An international data privacy lawyer, Elizabeth Renieris, who contributed to the first draft of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, told Fast Company that an American AI strategy that leverages "existing legal frameworks" could "potentially be more effective” than the EU's strategy of drafting AI-specific legislation as the technology evolves.

Of course, the EU is not alone in drafting AI laws—which Renieris called an "exercise in futility." China moved to censor AI technologies in April, just as US President Joe Biden announced his administration's plans to lay out rules to audit AI technologies. Now, the US Commerce Department is even asking the whole country to weigh in, seeking public comment on AI policies that could be used "to coordinate federal efforts to advance trustworthy AI applications."

Meanwhile, some companies heavily investing in AI technologies are lobbying for self-regulation to remain the norm. Politico reported that a February 2023 investigation by Corporate Europe Observatory—a research and campaign group tracking how lobbyists influence EU policies—found that big tech companies like Microsoft and Google had "doggedly lobbied EU policymakers to exclude general-purpose AI like ChatGPT" from any "high-risk" designations under the Artificial Intelligence Act.

Microsoft declined to comment. Google did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

OpenAI gives in to Italy’s data privacy demands, ending ChatGPT ban

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OpenAI gives in to Italy’s data privacy demands, ending ChatGPT ban

Italy requested a PSA showing users how to opt out of ChatGPT data sharing.

Governments debate how to regulate AI

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