This European Country Goes to Ban ChatGPT

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The Italian privacy regulator ordered a ban on ChatGPT over alleged privacy violations.

The national data protection authority said it will immediately block and investigate OpenAI, the U.S. company behind the popular artificial intelligence tool, from processing the data of Italian users. The order is temporary until the company respects the EU’s landmark privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Italy has become the first Western country to block advanced chatbot ChatGPT.

The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI “with immediate effect”.

Millions of people have used ChatGPT since it launched in November 2022.

It can answer questions using natural, human-like language and it can also mimic other writing styles, using the internet as it was in 2021 as its database.

Microsoft has spent billions of dollars on it and it was added to Bing last month.

ChatGPT is already blocked in a number of countries, including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.