What We Can Learn From Italy’s Recent ChatGPT Ban

Italy has just recently banned ChatGPT due to privacy concerns raised by the country’s data watchdog. And with OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Bard having been recently released, this topic is more important than ever. So today on The Old and the New, I will be covering Italy’s recent ChatGPT ban — and what we can learn from it. 
A quick announcement before the episode: As this ban was announced less than a day ago as of the time of writing this episode, please note that new developments may occur that have not been covered in this episode. 
Yesterday, on the 31st of March, Italy’s Data Protection Authority, or GPDP,  issued a press release saying that it had issued a ban and would investigate OpenAI "with immediate effect". This is due to privacy concerns as well as concerns over the verification of the age of minors. 
Italy’s security watchdog has accused the creators of OpenAI of “unlawful collection of personal data” and has ordered the company to cease collecting the data of Italian users until its data collection policy has been amended. The watchdog has also accused OpenAI of the “absence of any filter for verifying the age of users.” This, they claim, exposes minors to content and answers that are not appropriate to their degree of development and self-awareness. 
So, what can we learn from this? 
The GPDP’s announcement has set precedent for how counties will deal with the evergrowing AI market. According to the New York Times, this is “the first known instance of the chatbot being blocked by a government order.” Until now, the countries in which ChatGPT was unavailable was due to OpenAI‘s decision to not release their chatbot in those countries, and not due to the countries’ governments banning the chatbot. Some examples of this include China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran, in which OpenAI’s chatbot is unavailable due to the company’s decision to not make it accessible. Thus, the Italian government is considered a trailblazer in this department, being called “the first Western country to take such action against the popular artificial intelligence chatbot” by AlJazeera, and is predicted to be the catalyst for other governments orders calling the privacy concerns over OpenAI’s products into question. 
The Italian government’s watchdog has ordered OpenAI to communicate within 20 days about the measures they have put in place for what was requested by the GPDP, with a penalty of a fine of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global turnover. In response, OpenAI has started geoblocking ChatGPT in Italy.

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