Spain could ban ChatGPT

ChatGPT, OpenAI's artificial intelligence tool, is in the spotlight again, as Spain could ban ChatGPT for copyright infringement. 

After being banned in Italy a few weeks ago for not complying with user data protection laws, Spain is now also considering banning its use. According to Reuters news agency, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has registered a request to the European Union's privacy watchdog to assess the privacy concerns raised about ChatGPT. 

According to Reuters, they want to check the basis of such concerns now that the scrutiny of artificial intelligence systems has increased enormously.

"The AEPD understands that global processing operations that may have a significant impact on the rights of individuals require coordinated decisions at the European level," a spokesperson for the Spanish agency explained to Reuters while detailing the request that the AEPD has made to European data privacy bodies: "Therefore, in the short term, the AEPD has requested that the ChatGPT issue be included in the Plenary of the European Data Protection Committee so that harmonized actions can be implemented in the framework of the application of the General Data Protection Regulation." The Plenary is being held this Thursday, April 13, but, for the moment, it is not known whether or not the issue has been discussed at that plenary meeting.

Along with the AEPD, the French National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has made public that it is investigating several complaints about ChatGPT, although it has avoided further details for the time being.

ChatGPT under heavy pressure 

ChatGPT problems seem to keep growing. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Joe Biden's administration has also begun examining whether controls are needed to regulate AI tools, a clear allusion to ChatGPT. 

In a first step, the U.S. Commerce Department last week issued a formal public request for comments on what it called "accountability measures," including whether new AI models should go through a certification process before launch. 

The release also mentioned how China's internet regulator has proposed strict controls on the type of content generated by platforms such as ChatGPT. At the moment, OpenAI has not commented on the matter.

ChatGPT is the best known of relational AI platforms that is able to emulate and elaborate human conversations. 

Its launch last November 30 has triggered a wave of impacts. Microsoft has adopted this technology and integrated it into most of its services, from its Bing search engine to office applications such as Word or Excel. 

There is no doubt that ChatGPT has become the tool of choice. Searches for this word, according to Semrush, have already accumulated 2.1 million searches since its launch. However, we must keep in mind that ChatGPT is still under development, and we must review all the information we are going to take from it.