ChatGPT AI Chatbot under growing scrutiny by European regulators

France’s data regulator received two complaints about the AI program ChatGPT, and European authorities are scrutinizing the chatbot after Italy banned it. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is famous for generating essays, poems, and conversations from the briefest of prompts, as well as passing tough exams.

Questionable Data Collection Basis:

However, Italian regulators argued that the company had no legal basis for massive data collection and questioned the way it handled the information. European authorities, including those of France, Ireland, and Germany, approached their Italian counterpart to establish a common position on ChatGPT.

On Tuesday, Canada’s data regulator said it was opening an investigation into OpenAI, showing that the concerns are not limited to Europe. France’s CNIL, the most powerful European data regulator, confirmed that it had received two complaints and is yet to announce a full investigation.

Zoe Vilain of Janus International, a campaign group, filed the first complaint. She stated that they want ethical technology, but they are not anti-tech. She wrote in her complaint that when she tried to sign up for a ChatGPT account, she was not asked for consent to any general terms of use or privacy policy.

Algorithm-generated False Stories:

The other complaint came from David Libeau, a developer, who found personal information about himself when he asked ChatGPT about his profile. He wrote in his submission that when he asked for more information, the algorithm started to make up false stories about him, creating websites or organizing online events.

ChatGPT and similar programs are trained on huge bodies of text gleaned from the internet and are known to invent answers. OpenAI said such “hallucinations” were less common with GPT-4, the latest version of the bot. Last month, hundreds of experts, including billionaire Tesla and Twitter boss Elon Musk, called for a halt in the development of powerful AI systems after the release of GPT-4.

After Italy’s order to halt ChatGPT, OpenAI stated that it was committed to protecting people’s privacy and believed the tool complied with the law.