Irish data regulator urges caution on chatbot bans. On Thursday, Ireland’s data protection head said generative AI like OpenAI’s ChatGPT must be controlled, but authorities must figure out how to do so before banning it.
“It needs to be regulated, and it’s about figuring out how to regulate it properly,” Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon told a Bloomberg conference, adding that the issue covered thousands of ChatGPT analogs.
“For the Irish data protection commission, we are trying to understand a little bit more about the technology, the large language models, and where the training data is sourced.”
“So I think it’s early days, but it’s time to be having those conversations now rather than rushing into prohibitions that really aren’t going to stand up.”
Following Italy’s unilateral ban on ChatGPT, Europe’s national privacy watchdogs formed a task group on the popular chatbot last week.
On Tuesday, Italy’s watchdog said ChatGPT might return at the end of April provided OpenAI takes “useful steps” to address its concerns. Microsoft Corp.-backed OpenAI shut it down in Italy last month.
Due to their EU headquarters in Ireland, many of the world’s largest technological businesses are regulated by the Irish DPC, while OpenAI does not.
Dixon stated that Generative AI challenges go beyond data privacy, encompassing copyright and defamation.
“We also want to contribute to broader discussions about risks and other areas of law that converge in AI,” she said.
Comment Template