Over the last few months ChatGPT played in countless headlines and news, mostly related to its features, updates, tricks and more. It’s normal, because the OpenAI chatbot marked a before and after not only in the idea that ordinary mortals have about artificial intelligence, but also in relation to it, something in which it was completely revolutionary. How can some think otherwise.

But a little over two weeks ago, the news was a general service outage that we heard about at the time, and which even got us thinking about the risks of becoming overly dependent on these services. However, what initially appeared to be a crash for technical reasons, actually turned out to be an emergency shutdowncompany after discovering a security issue that led to a data breach.

This could have been an isolated incident, but it wasn’t, as some regulators who were already watching ChatGPT he saw this incident as the straw that broke the camel’s back. So last week we learned that the Italian data protection regulator (Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, GPDP) decided to block access to ChatGPT in Italy, setting an important precedent in the Union context. stated in its press release that the service violated the GDPR, i.e. the European standard that establishes the legal framework for data protection.

I already said it then and I was right, Italy could only be the first, as other regulators would take note and we might see similar measures in other European countries. Well, as we can read in El Sol de México, regulators of Germany, France and Ireland They have already contacted their Italian namesake to request more information on the matter to see if they should also implement similar blocking in their respective jurisdictions as already experienced by ChatGPT in Italy. And it goes without saying that if these countries act in this way, the chain reaction throughout the old continent (and beyond) will grow exponentially.

Regarding the situation of ChatGPT in Spain, Vozpopuli contacted the AEPD (Spanish Data Protection Agency), our country’s regulator, to request information. The agency is not currently conducting any investigations. it has not received any complaints in this regard either, although it says it is monitoring the situation closely in case an investigation becomes necessary. At this point, however, we must remind that the AEPD presidency is in a temporary state since 2019, with which she was still in office until then, until a person to replace her is appointed.

Of course, this does not mean that Spain will not act in this regard. As I said earlier, if any of the “heavyweights” in the EU decide to apply the same measures as Italy, we can expect other regulators, including the AEPD, to follow suit.

We must also remember that we do blocking is temporary. Italy gave OpenAI 20 days to fix the deficiencies found in service. If the Company is able to act in a timely manner, access to ChatGPT will be restored. This is important in its own right, but also in terms of inferring how other regulators will act. Tomorrow, April 5, a meeting of GPDP and OpenAI is scheduled at the request of the technology company, which may mark a shift in the service situation in the country.

What i mean? Blocking access to a service is not an easy decision, so it makes sense that other European regulators they await the development of the case in Italy. So if OpenAI can solve these problems quickly and Italy decides to lift the blockade, the situation in Europe will most likely normalize. However, if the situation lasts longer than the 20 days granted by Italy, then movements can be expected that complicate the situation of ChatGPT throughout the European common space.