Italian privacy regulator GPDP has ordered ChatGPT to be banned for alleged privacy violations. The national data protection authority has announced that it will immediately block and investigate the processing of Italian users’ data by OpenAI, the US company behind the popular artificial intelligence tool. The relevant ban will remain in effect until the EU’s landmark privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, is complied with.

Italy bans ChatGPT

Italy’s regulator, GPDP, said in a statement that OpenAI has no legal justification for collecting users’ personal information. The statement also states that OpenAI does not have a mechanism to stop minors from accessing the service, which “exposes responses that are absolutely inappropriate compared to their degree of development and self-awareness.” Based on these rhetoric, the agency banned ChatGPT due to the illegal collection of personal data and the lack of systems to verify the age of minors.

OpenAI could be fined

The GPDP says the company has 20 days to report what measures it has taken to meet regulators’ requirements, and could face fines of up to 20 million euros (or 4 percent of its annual global turnover) if it fails.

An Italian official said ChatGPT suffered a data breach last week, exposing users’ conversations and payment information. Italy also banned Replika.ai this year for similar reasons.

There are growing calls on both sides of the Atlantic for new versions of ChatGPT to be suspended and its manufacturer, OpenAI, to be investigated over a range of risks to privacy, cybersecurity and disinformation. Elon Musk and hundreds of AI experts this week called for a break from the development of new versions of ChatGPT.