Italy has banned ChatGPT, could this be a sign of things to come?

Aaron O'Leary
45 replies
Italy has become the first western country to ban ChatGPT. The Government has cited privacy concerns as a reason for the ban. Could this be a sign for things to come, not just for ChatGPT but AI as a whole?

Replies

Ksenia Larina (she/her)
Oh, absolutely. And we will fight about AI for decades to come. Some will use fear as a way to gatekeep, others will leverage it against their opponents using limited understanding of the general public of what it is and how it works. We made climate change controversial, I won’t be surprised if attempts to regulate or deregulate AI will cause wars or violent protests at least.
Stephen
@kay_larina I hope you are not right about about the violence aspect, but it certainly is a hot issue because it is a new and powerful machine that can be used in many ways - good and bad alike.
Ksenia Larina (she/her)
@stephen_smith67 oh, I hope I'm not right too :) But a lot of people have been polarised by even less controversial things, AI just has too much room for misunderstanding, speculations and conspiracies.
Abhishek Jha
For AI enthusiasts like us and you, this ban is a terrifying, but the ban on ChatGPT in Italy is a significant development in the regulation of AI. While AI is still a relatively new technology, there is growing concern about its potential impact on privacy, security, and other areas. The ban on ChatGPT in Italy could be a sign of things to come, as other countries may follow suit and introduce similar regulations.
Maruf Shekh
I don't think so Just imagine, if you need to research some important topics and you don't have enough time!!!
Marco Ceruti
@maruf_workspace the company where my fiancé work decided to include ChatGPT in their workflow from Monday. They expect her to produce 160 piece of content (~600 words articles each one) in the next week It will be funny to see the whole team missing the deliverables by A LOT
Gail Gardner
@maruf_workspace @marco_ceruti That's insane. And have you ever seen AI generated content? It is full of inaccuracies. AI can't always determine the correct meaning of the data it pulls from various sources. Companies like the one she works for are in for a rude awakening. And some very embarrassing moments due to publishing wildly incorrect information. She may want to start looking for her next position.
Maruf Shekh
@marco_ceruti @growmap here all are talking about AI generated content though there have a lot more to do with AI. AI can be the best tool for those who are experts already
Ryan Hoover
It's going to get very messy, especially during the US 2024 election. Hold on.
Valorie Jones
In this case, their concern is more about data collection and privacy than an issue with generative AI in general. This is going to be really hard to regulate. First, we are already seeing a proliferation of AI models. It is going to be really hard to pick and choose and say ChatGPT is illegal, but Google BARD is ok. What if someone forks a model, or fine-tunes a model, or uses a slightly different training algorithm with a different number of parameters? What is the listmus test for a dangerous or illegal AI model? Secondly, politicians and lawyers are not known for being particularly tech savy as seen by the recent Gonzalez v. Google Supreme Court case that was evaluating Section 230 on social media liabilities.
Marco Ceruti
@val_jones well, not really. The person in charge who took the decision signed the open letter that was asking to stop AI development for a while (the one signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and many others). This person has power over GDPR supervision, so people are speculating he used his power to stop AI adoption
Valorie Jones
@marco_ceruti Interesting, I was not aware of the connection to the letter. Do you have a article or link that explains the backstory? My interpretation was that OpenAI was not explicitly GDPR compliant either on website or backend. At least of mid-February, if you asked ChatGPT about GDPR it was ambiguous and did not provide sufficient details on how it was compliant. This article breaks down the different requirements: https://dhillemann.medium.com/a-.... As of this week, ChatGPT has improved slightly. OpenAI may have added specific checks or training data for GDPR questions. The question is once, OpenAI has jumped through all the hoops for GDPR compliance, what other steps will they take to try to pause development/deployment? Prompt: "Is ChatGPT compliant with GDPR" Response: "I believe you may be referring to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which is a regulation in the European Union that governs the protection and processing of personal data. As an artificial intelligence language model, I am designed to operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including GDPR. OpenAI, the organization that developed and operates me, is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal data, and has implemented technical and organizational measures to ensure compliance with GDPR and other data protection laws. Additionally, OpenAI provides clear and transparent information to users about how their data is processed and used. However, it is important to note that the responsibility for compliance with GDPR and other data protection laws ultimately lies with the data controller, who is the entity that determines the purposes and means of processing personal data. If you have any specific questions or concerns about how your personal data is processed by ChatGPT or OpenAI, I suggest contacting OpenAI directly or consulting a legal professional." Prompt: What personal information does ChatGPT store about users? Response: "As an artificial intelligence language model, I do not store any personal information about users myself. However, the organizations that use my services may collect and process personal information about users, such as their name, email address, and other identifying information. When a user interacts with me, their input and other data that is provided during the interaction (such as location, IP address, and device information) may be temporarily stored in memory to enable me to generate a response. However, this data is typically deleted immediately after the interaction is complete and is not permanently stored. It is important to note that the collection and processing of personal information by organizations that use my services is subject to their own privacy policies and applicable laws and regulations, such as GDPR. If you have any specific questions or concerns about how your personal information is collected, processed, or stored by an organization that uses ChatGPT, I recommend consulting their privacy policy or contacting them directly."
Andrea Aceves
It would be really hard to cancel AI as a whole. The force is strong with this one. It’s almost in everything we do.. I think regulations will be trial and error :) we live and we learn - AI
There are always two sides to a coin, people's confusion will persist for a while until the path becomes clearer.
@ming_xu1 I completely agree! It's natural for confusion to arise with new products, but with time and clarity, users will become more comfortable navigating the platform.
Simon
That just means more bandwidth for the free world.
deepu
Privacy is not the real reason. If y'all keep making fun of their food, yes it going to get banned. Asking GPT - Pineapple on pizza recipes, Pasta on pizza recipes. That triggered Italian government and now they are banning it 🤣
Business Marketing with Nika
Today I was at a lecture about potential AI threats and GPT chat. We also discussed how it can create pathogens. Some things should be regulated but I do not think that banning AI will completely solve the situation. It is like using the internet (you can use it for the good things as for the bad ones). Anyway, if there is a code, other people can replicate it in the secret. This trend is faster than our capability to stop it.
Morgan Kung
In my opinion, the development and use of GPT will undoubtedly be limited, but in different countries and regions, this boundary is different. In fact, I am also a liitle afraid of the rapid development of GPT, and the lack of corresponding institutions to regulate GPT will become very dangerous.
Stephen
@inc_gemoo you are right. It is not about banning, it is about understanding and providing a safe path forward. If we could learn how to do that with nuclear weapons, we can do the same with our transformers!
Sushmita Sahu
Governments might come up with some regulations around AI, since there's a fear of job loss.
Naveed Rehman
They stopped the chatbot, not APIs. I see huge marketing there to sell chatbots.
Marco Ceruti
@naveed_rehman true. I’m Italian and I run ChatGPT locally on my Mac using OpenAI API But the majority of the people who want to use ChatGPT are using VPNs
Kemal Karatas
AI is awesome, ChatGPT is also a good product but every innovation needs serious regulations. Each ecosystem checks the situations. There should be an alternative worst scenario against the unexpected results.
Alina Dyabina
it's a sign, that new times are coming and Ai is becoming a par of our life
Marco Ceruti
I’m Italian, and things are getting out of hand. It was done for precaution, because APPARENTLY ChatGPT was storing more data than they should, and that would be against GDPR. The amount they should have to pay if confirmed (4% of their annual revenue, or 20M€) is the standard for GDPR violation But apparently the person in charge who took this decision also signed the open letter that was asking to pause AI development (the one signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and many others) So people are saying that ChatGPT was stopped not because of privacy, but because of fear Fun fact, you can still use OpenAI products. People started using VPNs to access ChatGPT I run it locally on my Mac using a local software, connected to the OpenAI API Another fun fact is that I have a single account to access OpenAI services (ChatGPT, dev dashboard, Dall-E), so I can assume they use SSO. If that is the case, why am I able to log in my dev dashboard, and not ChatGPT? If the problem is data retention, it should be escalated to the whole infrastructure, while in the end only ChatGPT was affected (which is “just a SaaS” if we are considering the OpenAI ecosystem) We’ll see, but the way this is being managed is ridiculous 😂
Gwakchang Joseph Gambo
@marco_ceruti I like your use of words, 'precaution' because the internet itself is not properly secured.
Richard Gao
This is indeed concerning Hopefully other countries won't follow along
Giulio
The Italian privacy guarantor did not ban ChatGPT. It simply posed the problem of the processing of personal data to OpenAI, asking for clarification within a few days. In response, OpenAI decided to suspend the service in Italy. Why did they do this? Perhaps because they were aware that they were using a lot of sometimes personal data indiscriminately?