Kanada has opened an investigation into the US company OpenAI, which is behind the chatbot ChatGPT. The investigation was launched following a complaint about the alleged “collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent,” Canada’s Privacy Commissioner’s office said on Tuesday. “We need to keep up with rapid technological advances – and even be ahead of them,” added Data Protection Commissioner Philippe Dufresne.
ChatGPT creates texts with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Users can specify individual commands or sentences, which the system then supplements independently using huge amounts of data from the Internet. Critics object that it is unclear where ChatGPT and its competitors get their data from and how they handle it.
Canada’s privacy commissioner’s move comes amid growing calls for more oversight over AI-powered technologies. On Friday, Italy became the first western country to block ChatGPT for privacy reasons. Last week, technology billionaire Elon Musk and numerous experts called for a break in the development of particularly advanced AI.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates spoke out against such a moratorium. “I don’t think asking to pause development will solve the challenges,” Gates told Reuters. Gates argued that a moratorium would be difficult to implement. He could not imagine that and why countries around the world would agree to such a regulation.
It’s better to clearly identify the challenges and problems with AI, Gates said. All in all, the technology brings enormous advantages that have to be used. The billionaire, who has repeatedly positioned himself as an AI advocate in the past, described the technology as just as revolutionary as the internet or mobile phones.