European privacy patrol sets up a task force on ChatGPT, as a first step toward a common policy

A task force on ChatGPT has been established by the organization that unifies European privacy patrol, marking a potentially significant first step towards a uniform policy on establishing privacy regulations for artificial intelligence.

The action by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) comes after an independent decision by Italy to restrict ChatGPT last month, a stance that Germany's commissioner for data protection suggested should be adopted in Europe's largest economy. On Thursday, Spain's AEPD agency announced that it, too, will open a preliminary probe into possible ChatGPT data breaches.

With more than 100 million monthly active users, ChatGPT, an AI program that attracted the public's attention for its ability to write answers quickly to a variety of queries, has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history, raising concerns about the risks it may pose to safety, privacy, and employment.

Concern has also been voiced by experts, the U.S. government, and numerous other European countries over the quick use of ChatGPT and other comparable AI technologies.

According to the statement, "The EDPB members discussed the recent enforcement action undertaken by the Italian data protection authority against OpenAI regarding the Chat GPT service."

The EDPB decided to establish a special task force to promote collaboration and information sharing about potential enforcement actions taken by data protection authorities.

Member states sought to unify their policy stances, but this would take time, according to a source at one national watchdog who requested to remain anonymous because they lacked the authorization to speak to the media.

According to the source, member states were not looking to penalize or impose regulations that would disadvantage Microsoft Corp.-backed ChatGPT owner OpenAI, but rather to establish broad regulations that "are transparent."

They said that policy specialists, as opposed to decision-makers, attended the meeting on Thursday and shared their perspectives and suggestions.

The EDPB, an independent agency made up of state data protection watchdogs, is responsible for regulating data protection laws in the European Union.