The European Union’s central data regulator has made a move to establish a specialized task force to address the use of Artificial Intelligence chatbot software, called ChatGPT. This move follows increased attention to the popular AI chatbot’s alleged privacy breaches and other potential problems. The task force aims to provide assistance to countries like Italy and France, who have initiated investigations into the program and even temporarily prohibited its use.
ChatGPT has attained popularity due to its ability to generate conversations, essays and poems from brief prompts. However the capability of the program has raised concerns surrounding cheating in educational systems, the spread of false information and replacing human workers. Criticism has also been made about the need for the program to acquire data from large source in order to remain functional. In response to the debate, France’s CNIL regulator has opened a formal procedure based on five complaints that have been filed, including one from Member of Parliament Eric Bothorel. The complaints involve instances where the chatbot invented details of the complainants’ lives, such as birthdates and job histories, which are not compliant with the regulations of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In response to Italy’s order to cease the use of the ChatGPT, OpenAI, the US-based creator of the chatbot, has assured the public of its commitment to protecting user privacy and has stated that they believe the software complies with the regulations. In addition, the EDPB (European Data Protection Board) has decided to form the task force to monitor possible actions undertaken by the data protection authorities for better cooperation and coordination.
OpenAI, the US company responsible for the development of ChatGPT, is an artificial intelligence research laboratory based in Silicon Valley. The firm deals in technology research, development, and deployment with the purpose of using stewardship in addressing safety and social impact concerns surrounding the creation and use of Artificial Intelligence.
Eric Bothorel, the French Member of Parliament mentioned in the article, is a member of the French Radical Party and was recently elected for the eighth constituency of Mayenne. He is a vocal advocate for improved data protection, with one of the primary functions of his role being to safeguard the private data of people living in the French Republic.
