Italy temporarily blocks ChatGPT over data privacy concerns

The Italian government's privacy watchdog has temporarily blocked the artificial intelligence (AI) software ChatGPT over data privacy concerns. The announcement on Friday made Italy the first Western country to take such action against the popular AI chatbot. The Italian Data Protection Authority described its action as provisional "until ChatGPT respects privacy". Its measure involves temporarily limiting the company from holding Italian users' data. The watchdog said ChatGPT developer OpenAI had no legal basis to justify "the mass collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of'training' the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform".