ChatGPT is Back in Italy

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has resumed operations in Italy after a month hiatus. Its parent company has also reportedly completed a new shares sales round that took its valuation to over $27 billion.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted on April 28 that ChatGPT was available in Italy again after authorities had imposed restrictions against it in March.

Previously, the Italian authorities Garante banned the artificial intelligence (AI) tool, citing concerns about its privacy standards and failure to verify its users’ age.

Italy Cautious on Artificial Intelligence

While news of its resumed operations has been widely celebrated even by critics like Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Garante wants to ensure more compliance from the company.

The authorities want OpenAI to conduct an information campaign informing Italians that they can opt out of having their data used to train the chatbots.

Besides that, the regulator plans to conduct “fact-finding activities regarding OpenAI also under the umbrella of the ad-hoc task force that was set up by the European Data Protection Board.”

ChatGPT Makes Data Management Moves

On April 25, OpenAI introduced a new feature allowing users to turn off their chat history. By disabling chat history, the AI startup said it would not use these conversations to train its AI models. 

The company further said it is also working on an export options feature. The feature would allow users to export their data into their emails. This way, they can see what information ChatGPT stores and other relevant data as it pertains to them.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT might soon have a business subscription for professionals and enterprises. This new subscription model would have stricter data management standards. As end users’ data won’t be used in training the models.

The company did not provide a timeline for this product’s availability.

OpenAI Completes $300M Shares Sale

OpenAI has completed a $300 million shares sale, pushing its valuation to $27 billion – $29 billion. Techcrunch reported that the fundraising included venture capital firms like Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT reached 100 million within just two months after its launch in November 2022. Furthermore, the AI chatbot has generated massive interest from big technology firms like Microsoft. Which has integrated it into several products.

However, experts like Elon Musk have called for a pause in developing AI systems. Musk had previously stated this because of the “profound risk” to humanity.