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ITALY HAS TEMPORARILY blocked ChatGPT over data privacy concerns, making it the first western country to take such action against the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
The country’s Data Protection Authority said US firm OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, had no legal basis to justify “the mass collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of ‘training’ the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform”.
ChatGPT caused a global sensation when it was released last year for its ability to generate essays, songs, exams and even news articles from brief prompts.
But critics have long fretted that it was unclear where ChatGPT and its competitors got their data or how they processed it.
Universities and some education authorities have banned the chatbot over fears that students could use it to write essays or cheat in exams.
And hundreds of experts and industry figures signed an open letter this week calling for a pause in the development of powerful AI systems, arguing they posed “profound risks to society and humanity”.
The letter was prompted by OpenAI’s release earlier this month of GPT-4, a more powerful version of its chatbot, with even less transparency about its data sources.
OpenAI has not yet commented on the Italian decision.
The Italian authority imposed a “temporary limitation of the processing of Italian user data” by OpenAI and said it had launched an investigation.
As well as a lack of legal basis for data collection, the authority also highlighted a lack of clarity over whose data was being collected.
It said wrong answers given by the chatbot suggested data was not being handled properly, and accused the firm of exposing children to “absolutely unsuitable answers”.
The watchdog further referenced a data breach on March 20 where user conversations and payment information were compromised – a problem the firm blamed on a bug.
Nello Cristianini, an AI academic from Bath university in Britain, said securing user data and enforcing age limits were easy to fix.
But the other two accusations were more problematic — that the model is trained on personal data that is gathered without consent and then not treated properly.
“It is not clear how these can be fixed anytime soon,” he said.
The company has been given 20 days to respond and could face a fine of 20 million euros ($21.7-million) or up to 4 percent of annual revenue.
The runaway success of ChatGPT garnered OpenAI a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft, which uses the technology in its Bing search engine and other programs.
It also sparked a gold rush among other tech firms and venture capitalists, with Google rushing out its own chatbot and investors pouring cash into all manner of AI projects.
© Agence France-Presse
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watch the package size shrink along with the rebranding
@DeWitt: that’s what she said disappointingly
But its rice… if it was a stereotype he’d be Asian
@thomas patrick: true
@thomas patrick: so get what you’re saying but this is more of an American history thing. Basically they are updating their very outdated brand
They’ll be coming for Chef’s Brown sauce next.
is today april 1st by any chance?
Yet the “Black Jack” sweets still survive after all these years.
@Gavin McKenna: Only because they were rebranded to drop the golliwog mascot many years ago.
@Kevin Collins:loyns tea
The world’s gone mad!
@Dominick Lodola: It’s the rebranding of a rice packet by a company concerned with their public image and profits. Hardly the world going mad. Calm yourself down.
@Dominick Lodola: if you think that’s “mad” just wait until November
What a load of ball ox
What’s wrong with Eskimo Pie ice cream? Do the Eskimos find it insulting?
@Gareth Keenan: “Do the Eskimos find it insulting?”
That’s not how this works. A bunch of white, middle class progressives will get offended on behalf of some ethnic group (without ever consulting said group) and it snowballs from there through social media and the usual bandwagon hoppers.
The family of the original Aunt Jemima were actually quite annoyed when Quaker Oats decided to remove their ancestor’s image from their products but they were not consulted on the matter.
@Gareth Keenan: Eskimo is a racial slur to Inuits. Yes, they do find it insulting.
@Gareth Keenan: it probably isn’t the pies, but its the term Eskimo, innuit.
:-)
I feel for the Man Eating Shark.
How will they deal with the name change?
I always knew their rice tasted kinda racist. It comes out of the box all white too
#BlackRiceMatters
Jesus Christ what next…..
I watched Blazing Saddles last night. Am I in trouble.
Madness.com
When I was a kid in the 70’s, there was an ice cream called a “Golly Bar”, complete with a stereotypical image of a black persons head with a big curly Afro. think HB made them. Obviously that bar is discontinued and rebranded. We need to move with the times and sensitivities of our age.
@Paul Whitehead: yep, I remember those.
They dropped the name in only 1992.
@Paul Whitehead: The Golly bar image was a cartoonish caricature and a racial stereotype and certainly had to go but the Uncle Ben’s logo is based on a real man named Frank Brown. The name ‘Uncle Ben’ came from an African American rice grower.
There’s a world of difference between the two logos.
@Will: Completely agree, rather than having a graduated approach which removes the tiny minority of clear racial prejudice in corporate branding, snowflakes seem to be offended by everything and corporations are searching for prejudice that doesn’t exist.
@Fintan Mac Giolla Pharic: what’s even more comical are the true “snowflakes” on here who are offended by a company making this change. Why does it upset you so much? It’s just a logo, it doesn’t actually mean anything. Is that why you guys are so angry all the time? Too much energy spent on being offended by everything?
@Paul Whitehead:
There’s a save the gollywog page on Facebook with 110k followers, all middle aged white brits unsurprisingly!
Be like the Black Board now it’s The White Board …. Insanity at its best !
Ara feck it, I’ll just have the noodles or chips thanks.
I’m getting worried of getting my nice tan every summer…. I’m afraid I’ll hurt anyone with my mediterranean stereotype….
For F!!!ks sake
Uncle Roger will be so angry with this that he’ll put his leg down from chair
@El Grogan: haiyaaaaaa
Next to go – Ginger Nuts
@Vincent Cahill: nah , seems it’s still ok to slag gingers! Poor Bs
Justice 4 gingers
On to the next movement now.
Please tell me the milky bar kid is safe?
ffs next thing they will remove the workd back from the dictionary
Is rice a black stereotype? Or was the problem that he was wearing a suit? I don’t really get the need for this change but hey, I guess it’s good free PR for the company
Aunt Jemima is next
It’s funny they seem to be removing all the ethnic characters and logos from Products. It doesn’t really bother me either way, but I can just imagine in a few years time there will be a clamour to introduce a more diverse image for these products. There was a meme going around last month about the Land o Lakes butter (I think that was the name of it) where they got rid of the Native American and kept the land.
No more Mr rice guy
Old news about name being changed. This tack was floated during the black lives matter campaign
If its white its all right!!!
What a load of nonsense .
If anything, Uncle Bens gave us a great moment on The Sopranos!!!!
The world is gone crazy
Simply ridiculous
I’d say the point is lost on the commentators.
sticks and stones will brake your bones but names will never hurt you.
Get a grip everyone.
have your say