OpenAI’s Regulatory Issues are Just Getting Started

Last week, OpenAI resolved issues with Italian data authorities and lifted the effective ban on ChatGPT in Italy. However, the company’s troubles with European regulators are far from over. ChatGPT, a popular and controversial chatbot, faced allegations of violating EU data protection rules, resulting in a restriction of access to the service in Italy while OpenAI worked on fixing the problem. 

The chatbot has since returned to Italy after minor changes were made to address the concerns raised by the Italian Data Protection Authority. While the GPDP has welcomed these changes, OpenAI’s legal battles and those of similar chatbot developers are likely just beginning. Regulators in multiple countries are investigating how these AI tools collect and produce information, citing concerns such as unlicensed training data collection and misinformation dissemination. 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the world’s strongest legal privacy frameworks, and its application in the EU is expected to have global effects. Moreover, EU lawmakers are currently crafting a law tailored to AI, which could introduce a new era of regulation for systems like ChatGPT.