Italy has become the first Western country to block the advanced chatbot ChatGPT.
The Italian data protection authority said there were privacy concerns related to the model, which was created by the U.S. start-up OpenAI and backed by Microsoft.
There were also concerns about the potential risks of artificial intelligence (AI), including its threat to jobs and the spread of misinformation and bias.
The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI “with immediate effect”.
Millions of people have been using ChatGPT since it launched in November 2022.
Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of BEUC, warned that society is “currently not protected enough from the harm” that AI can cause.
“There are serious concerns on the rise about how ChatGPT and similar chatbots can trick and manipulate people. These AI systems need greater public scrutiny, and public authorities need to reassert control over them,” she said.
ChatGPT is already blocked in a number of countries, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
