When OpenAI was released GPT-3 in July 2020, provided a glimpse of the data used to train the large language model. Millions of pages pulled from the web, Reddit posts, books and more are used to create the generative text system, according to a technical document. This data collects some of the personal information you share about yourself online. This data is now causing problems for OpenAI.
On March 31, Italy’s data regulator issued a temporary emergency decision demanding that OpenAI stop using the personal information of millions of Italians that is included in their training data. According to the regulator, Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, OpenAI does not have the legal right to use people’s personal information on ChatGPT. In response, OpenAI has blocked people in Italy from accessing its chatbot while it provides answers to officials, who are investigating further.
The action is the first taken against ChatGPT by a Western regulator and highlights privacy tensions surrounding the creation of giant generative AI models, which are often trained on vast swathes of internet data. Such as artists and media companies have complained that generative AI developers have used their work without permission, the data regulator now says the same for people’s personal information.
Similar decisions could follow across Europe. In the days since Italy announced its investigation, data regulators in France, Germany and Ireland have contacted Guarantor to request more information about their findings. “If the business model has been to just search the internet for everything you can find, then there could be a really major problem here,” says Tobias Judin, international head of Norway’s data protection authority, which is monitoring developments. . Judin adds that if a model is based on data that can be collected illegally, he raises questions about whether anyone can legally use the tools.
Italy’s blow to OpenAI also comes as scrutiny of great AI models is steadily increasing. On March 29, tech leaders called for a pause in the development of systems like ChatGPT, fearing its future implications. Judin says the Italian decision highlights more immediate concerns. “Essentially, we’re seeing that AI development to date could be seriously lacking,” says Judin.
Italian work
of Europe GDPR rulesthat cover how organizations collect, store and use the personal data of individuals, protects the data of more than 400 million people across the continent. This personal data can be anything from a person’s name to their IP address; if it can be used to identify someone, it may count as your personal information. Unlike the patchwork of state-level privacy rules in the United States, GDPR protections apply if people’s information is freely available online. In short: Just because someone’s information is public doesn’t mean you can hoover it up and do whatever you want with it.
Italy’s Guarantor believes that ChatGPT has four problems under GDPR: OpenAI does not have age controls to prevent people under 13 from using the text generation system; may provide information about individuals that is not accurate; and people have not been told that their data was collected. Perhaps most importantly, your fourth argument claims that there is “no legal basis” for collecting personal information from people in the massive data waves used to train ChatGPT.
“The Italians have caught their bluff,” says Lilian Edwards, a professor of law, innovation and society at the University of Newcastle in the UK. “It seemed pretty obvious in the EU that this was a violation of data protection law.”
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