The ChatGPT AI became a global phenomenon when it launched in November.

Italy has temporarily blocked ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence chatbot developed by US firm OpenAI, over concerns of data privacy. OpenAI has been accused by the Data Protection Authority of the country of collecting and storing personal data on a large scale for training the algorithms of their platform without any legal justification.

Critics have long been worried about the source and processing of data by ChatGPT and its competitors. The chatbot’s success led to universities and education authorities banning it over concerns of cheating, prompting experts and industry figures to call for a pause in the development of powerful AI systems.

OpenAI has said it disabled ChatGPT for users in Italy and is committed to protecting people’s privacy, adding that it believes it complies with privacy laws.

It also said it received from its users in Italy that they found ChatGPT very useful for daily tasks, and that it looked forward to resuming the service soon.

The Italian authority has launched an investigation into the matter and has given OpenAI 20 days to respond. The company could face a fine of €20m or 4% of its annual revenue.

As a result of ChatGPT’s success, OpenAI secured a multi-billion dollar agreement with Microsoft, who employs the technology in its Bing search engine and other software.

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