Italy’s data protection agency said on Friday it fined ChatGPT maker OpenAI 15 million euros ($15.58 million) after closing an investigation into use of personal data by the generative artificial intelligence application. The fine comes after the authority found OpenAI processed users’ personal data to “train ChatGPT without having an adequate legal basis and violated the principle of transparency and the related information obligations towards users”. OpenAI said the decision was “disproportionate” and that the company will file an appeal against it. The investigation, which started in 2023, also concluded that the U.S.-based company did not have an adequate age verification system in place to prevent children under the age of 13 from being exposed to inappropriate AI-generated content, the authority said. The Italian watchdog also ordered OpenAI to launch a six-month campaign on Italian media to raise public awareness about how ChatGPT works, particularly as regards to data collection of users and non-users to train algorithms. Italy’s authority, known as Garante, is one of the European Union’s most proactive regulators in assessing AI platform compliance with the bloc’s data privacy regime. Last year it briefly banned the use of ChatGPT in Italy over alleged breaches of EU privacy.

Full report : Italy’s data regulator fines OpenAI €15 million after its probe found that the startup processed users’ personal data to train ChatGPT without an adequate legal basis.