Italy lifts block on ChatGPT following global artificial intelligence craze

Despite calls from Elon Musk to pause “AI experiments”, one nation has backflipped on its pledge to halt access to a controversial app.

In March, Italy became the first Western country to take action against the popular AI chatbot. Picture: Thalía Juárez/The Wall Street Journal

Italy has lifted its block on ChatGPT after temporarily banning it over data privacy concerns last month, the artificial intelligence chatbot’s owner said Friday.

“ChatGPT is available again for our users in Italy. We are delighted to welcome them back and remain committed to protecting their personal data,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

ChatGPT caused a global sensation when it was released last year for generating essays, songs, exams and even news articles from brief prompts.

But critics have fretted over how ChatGPT and its competitors collect and process their data.

In March, Italy became the first Western country to take action against the popular AI chatbot.

Critics have fretted over how ChatGPT and its competitors collect and process their data. Picture: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP

The country’s data protection watchdog had said that US firm OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, had no legal basis to justify the mass collection and storage of personal data for training the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform.

The authority also highlighted a lack of clarity over whose data was being collected.

It said that inaccurate information being provided by the chatbot was not being handled properly and accused the firm of exposing children to “absolutely unsuitable answers”.

OpenAI now has information on its website “about how we collect and use training data” and “greater visibility” on the homepage of ChatGPT and OpenAI about the policy regarding personal data.

The company also said it had implemented a tool “to verify in Italy the age of users” once they log in.

The Italian Authority acknowledged on Friday “the steps taken to combine technological progress with the respect of people’s rights”.

In March, Italy became the first Western country to take action against the popular AI chatbot. Picture: Thalía Juárez/The Wall Street Journal

Meanwhile, Elon Musk and a bunch of other big names in the tech world, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, have signed an open letter demanding an urgent pause on “giant AI experiments”.

The group is calling for AI Labs to immediately pause — for at least six months — the training of AI systems that are more powerful than GPT-4.

The latest version of the artificial intelligence language model Chat GPT, GPT-4, is ridiculously powerful and can do things like turn a simple drawing into a functioning website and create a video game in 60 seconds.

Mr Musk, who forked out a $150 million (US$100 million) donation to OpenAI when it was a not-for-profit, has turned sour on the company.

“What will be left for us humans to do?” he wondered when the latest technology was unveiled on March 15 this year.

Now his reservations have been made more formal in the open letter published by the Future of Life Institute.

The group warned: “AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity”.”

The authors added that it was critical for AI technology to be managed with care, and warned that this “is not happening”.