Italians decide to halt Chat-ter

Italian regulators have temporarily blocked AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, citing privacy concerns following a reported data breach and also raising concerns about children’s safety.

The Italian Data Protection Authority said it was taking provisional action “until ChatGPT respects privacy,” including temporarily limiting the company from processing Italian users’ data.

The agency said Microsoftbacked OpenAI, the Silicon Valley-based company behind ChatGPT, had “no legal basis” for harvesting user data that was being gathered “to train the algorithms that power the platform.”

The Italian government said it launched an investigation against OpenAI, which has 20 days to demonstrate that it is abiding by European Union privacy rules.

Failure to do so could result in fines of either 4% of the firm’s global annual revenue, or $21.8 million — whichever is higher.

The agency also flagged what it said was OpenAI’s lack of a filter to verify that children under 13 were not using ChatGPT, according to the Financial Times.

The regulator alleged kids were being exposed to content unfit for their “level of selfconsciousness.”

The Post has sought comment from OpenAI.

The rise of ChatGPT shook the tech world after the AIpowered bot demonstrated advanced conversational abilities that mimicked those of humans.

The technology has been shown to be capable of composing emails, essays and software code — stoking fears that it could replace people who work in knowledge-based industries.

Some school districts have banned ChatGPT due to concerns it could be exploited to cheat on exams.

The rapid advancements in AI have led some prominent tech observers to urge caution.