Although OpenAI has not been found to have violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when developing ChatGPT, the company is still facing a fine of up to 4% of its total annual revenue.
After more than a year of research and evaluation, a report from the European Data Protection Authority (EDPB) revealed that they are considering legal issues related to OpenAI's data processing in developing the ChatGPT chatbot. . The agency has not yet made a final decision.
This issue causes OpenAI to face penalties that can be up to 4% of total annual revenue if found to be in violation. Meanwhile, the lack of clarity on EDPB's AI guidance and regulations is part of the reason why OpenAI and many other companies are in a precarious legal situation.
According to experts' predictions, to comply with European privacy regulations, OpenAI needs to make many significant changes in the way it collects and processes data, including making processes transparent, providing gives users control over their data and creates stronger privacy protections.
Currently, investigations into ChatGPT are taking place in several European countries such as Italy and Poland. Italy's data protection authority issued a temporary ban on ChatGPT in April 2023, but it was lifted after OpenAI made some privacy changes. However, the Italian investigation continues and other watchdogs are waiting for a final report before making a decision.
There is currently no clear information on what penalties OpenAI will face and when, but the rapid development of ChatGPT and other AI technologies has posed many new challenges for protection laws data. Managing these technologies will be a complex task and requires close coordination between regulatory agencies and businesses.
