European Union Puts Brakes on Google’s ChatGPT Rollout Citing Privacy Issues

Google has delayed the launch of its generative AI chatbot, Bard, in the European Union due to privacy concerns raised by the Irish Data Protection Commission. The Italian government’s privacy watchdog has temporarily blocked the artificial intelligence (AI) software ChatGPT over data privacy concerns, making Italy the first Western country to take such action against the popular AI chatbot. The Italian Data Protection Authority described its action as provisional “until ChatGPT respects privacy” .

The Garante has ordered a block on ChatGPT over concerns OpenAI has unlawfully processed people’s data, including the information of minors. The chatbot is the hottest sensation of artificial intelligence technology but was hit with a temporary ban in Italy last month on the grounds that it could violate Europe’s privacy rulebook, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) . OpenAI, the organization that created ChatGPT, has not set up a local headquarters in one of the European Union’s 27 countries, which means any member country’s data protection authority can launch new investigations and enforce bans