The European Data Protection Board today announced that it has set up a task force to investigate ChatGPT, a day after Italy rescinded a ban on the generative artificial intelligence service following privacy concerns.
The EDPB is an independent body within the European Union whose purpose is to ensure the consistent application of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and to promote cooperation among the EU’s data protection authorities. Privacy has not been a huge issue for ChatGPT so far, but that changed on March 31 when Italy’s Guarantor for the Protection of Personal Data ordered ChatGPT to suspend operations in the country, citing concerns that the company did not comply with GDPR.
Italian officials said they were concerned that OpenAI LP, the parent company of ChatGPT, was processing the personal information of Italian citizens at a large scale without a legal basis. The regulator cited concerns that ChatGPT was trained with sensitive information about citizens, such as phone numbers and addresses, which could put them at risk.
The Italian regulator also raised concerns about so-called “hallucinations” in ChatGPT, where the model, in the absence of an accurate answer, is prone to making up fake but otherwise realistically sounding stories about people whose information was scraped from the internet.
The decision by Italy to lift the ban came with the condition that OpenAI agrees to enforce a set of rules that will protect users’ privacy by April 30.
The EDPB said in today’s statement that its members had “discussed the recent enforcement action undertaken by the Italian data protection authority against Open AI about the Chat GPT service” before deciding to launch a dedicated task force to “foster cooperation and to exchange information on possible enforcement actions conducted by data protection authorities.”
Reuters reported that a source at one national watchdog said that member states hoped to align their policy positions, but that would take time. Member states are said to be not seeking to punish or make rules that will affect ChatGPT but rather create general policies that “are transparent.”
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