Kelber, in a statement to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, pointed out that Germany could follow in Italy’s footsteps by blocking ChatGPT, which is financially supported by Microsoft, due to data security concerns.
Ulrich Kelber, using the phrase “Such an action is possible in Germany in principle”, stated that blocking ChatGPT, developed by the US-based OpenAI, would fall under the jurisdiction of the states.
Noting that Germany had requested more information from Italy about the ban, Kelber did not provide details about Germany’s plan to block ChatGPT.
The Italian Data Protection Agency reported on April 1 that it had illegally collected personal data of Italian users, and that access to ChatGPT was temporarily blocked until it met the requirements of Italy’s privacy standards and regulations.
The Italian agency, which started an investigation against ChatGPT, also cited the failure to inform users about the collection procedure of the data among the violations.
Thus, Italy became the first Western country to take action against a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, data protection authorities in France and Ireland announced that they contacted the Italian Data Protection Agency to discuss their findings.