The Italian government has banned ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI (opens in new tab), for lacking an age verification system and for collecting and processing user data in violation of the country's privacy laws.

The order, handed down by Italy's Data Protection Authority, states that ChatGPT users were not given any information about the collection and use of their data and that there is no "legal backing" for the data collection, which it says is used to train ChatGPT. It also states that tests have shown that the information provided by ChatGPT "does not always match the facts"-which is true, and chatbots tend to bullshit-and that while the terms of service restrict use to those 13 years of age and older, no age verification system exists.

The regulatory agencies have been very clear that they do not have an age verification system.

The regulator also refers to the March 20 "data breach." The "data breach" affected "information about user conversations and payments made by subscribers," it said; OpenAI acknowledged the issue (opens in new tab) on March 24, stating that "there was a bug in the open source library that allowed some users to view the chat history of other active users' titles," and stated that the system was taken offline "because some users were able to see the titles of other active users' chat histories.

"If both users were active at the same time, the first message of a newly created conversation could have appeared in the other user's chat history," OpenAI said.

As the BBC notes, ChatGPT is already blocked in other countries, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The reasons for blocking it with these countries may be the same, as Italy is currently a coalition of right-wing and far-right parties that would have a problem with publicly available "factual" data that would portray their country unfavorably.

Artificial intelligence experts, industry leaders, and Elon Musk's group recently published an open letter (open in new tab) calling for a six-month halt to training of AI more powerful than GPT-4. But other agencies have taken more concrete steps: the New York City Department of Education (opens in new tab), for example, announced in January that it would restrict access to its software from school networks and devices, and Getty Images (opens in new tab) has uploaded and sold images generated by AI and banned the uploading and sale of AI-generated images. The European Consumer Agency (opens in new tab) has also called for an investigation into ChatGPT technology, and Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner told the BBC that it is seeking more information from Italian regulators about the reasons for the ban.

But while there is obvious (and understandable) nervousness about the explosion of AI and its potential to wreak havoc in all sorts of unpredictable ways, it does not seem likely to slow software development, at least in the short term. In January, Microsoft announced plans to invest $10 billion (opens in new tab) in open AI, and in February, Google (opens in new tab) announced its own ChatGPT-like chatbot called Bird. Regulation is absolutely necessary, and further bans will almost certainly come, but AI development is here to stay, for better or worse.