Canada launches investigation into OpenAi for unlawful use of personal data

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation into OpenAI. The company that created ChatGpt is under investigation for the collection, use and dissemination of personal data without consent. This was reported by the French newspaper Libre Eco.

The accusation is very similar to the one made by Italy against the company founded in 2016 by Sam Altman and joins the other disputes that have recently arrived at the San Francisco laboratory. The personal data authorities of France, Germany and Ireland are also considering banning artificial intelligence software from collecting citizens’ data. In the same line as what the Italian Guarantor has already done on the hypothesis of violation of the European data law, the Gdpr.

The Canada survey on ChatGpt

According to the Canadian authority, the investigation “was launched following a complaint of collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent”. The reason? OpenAI’s ChatGpt uses the information available online to provide detailed answers to users’ questions But it would be doing it illegitimately.

In an interview published today in La Stampa, Mira Murati, head of technological development of OpenAi, said he was not aware of other disputes from other national authorities, but “but if there are countries that are afraid I hope they do starting a dialogue with us instead of blocking or shutting us down”, unlike what Italy did.

OpenAi and its software based on artificial intelligence are at the center of increasingly pressing attention from institutions and governments. It is the subject of a complaint presented to the Federal Trade Commission, the American Consob, which asks to investigate OpenAi and suspend the release of new models such as ChatGpt.

The accusation of an Australian politician, who threatens libel suits

Meanwhile, OpenAi also risks opening a front in Australia, where the president of the province of Hepburn Shire, Brian Hood, has threatened to sue the company if it does not correct ChatGPT’s false claims: according to the chatbot, the politician would have been in prison for corruption, because he was involved in a Reserve Bank of Australia scandal in the early 2000s. It could be the first libel case against an AI.

That of false claims is another issue raised by the Italian Guarantor. A videoconference meeting will be held today in Rome between the personal data protection authority and some company representatives. Objective: to discuss the disputes and find a solution to restore the service in Italy. “From what we read we know that a large part of Italian civil society is on Chatgpt’s side,” Murati said in the interview.

Defending the release of new, increasingly advanced products, defining it as “the only way to get people and society used to these new technologies, monitoring their impact and trying to implement corrections”. Thesis that at the moment does not convince all legislators and supervisory authorities.