The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) has opened an ex officio investigation against the American technology OpenAI for possible violations of data protection regulations committed by its artificial intelligence ChatGPT. The Spanish regulator has announced the decision after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) announced on Thursday the creation of a working group to coordinate the different European privacy agencies in a possible joint veto to ChatGPT. This chain of decisions comes after Italy decided to block ChatGPT in its territory for the same reason.
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“With the start of the investigation in Spain and the participation in the European working group, the AEPD acts in parallel within the framework of its powers and competences as a national supervisory and control authority, as well as in coordination with its European counterparts through of the Committee”, the body expressed in a statement sent to elDiario.es.
“The Agency advocates for the development and implementation of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence with full respect for current legislation, since it considers that only from this starting point can technological development be carried out that is compatible with rights and freedoms of the people”, he added.
The EDPB movement is the first step to organize a common EU position on artificial intelligence and privacy. This type of technology has raised the doubts of some experts and lawyers because it your training absorbs vast amounts of information that you find on the Internet. It uses it to learn how people express themselves and to be able to generate texts on practically any subject, but the companies that develop it do not give details of what type of data is included in this training and if there is personal information of citizens in it.
This information gap led to the Italian ban against ChatGPT, imposed on October 31. This is a temporary block while it resolves its investigation on “the lack of information for users and all interested parties from whom OpenAI collects data” but “above all the absence of a legal basis that justifies the massive collection and conservation of personal data”, explained.
“In particular, [hemos detectado] three different violations”, explained one of the people in charge of the transalpine organization to the newspaper the republic: “Having collected the personal data of billions of people to train their algorithms without informing them of this circumstance and, probably, without having an adequate legal basis; collect personal data from users during conversations without informing them of the destination of this data; and generate content, in response to questions, that sometimes attribute inaccurate and false facts and circumstances to people, thus proposing a distorted representation of their personal identity.
France and Germany are also reviewing ChatGPT’s use of personal information. OpenAI has accepted the Italian decision and has announced that it will return the money to Italian users who have paid for the ChatGPT “Plus” service. However, he has refused to comment or communicate details about his tool’s investigation or use of personal data. elDiario.es has contacted the technology company to include its assessment of the new investigation announced by the AEPD, but has not yet received a response.
