Last week, Italy’s data protection agency decided to ban the use of ChatGPT due to data privacy concerns. Now another European country, Germany, may have made the same decision.

Germany’s data protection commissioner, Ulrich Koelber, said in an interview with the newspaper Handelsblatt that regulators in the country are in talks with Italian regulators to ban ChatGPT. “…in principle, such actions are possible in Germany,” Kelber said.

The ban in Italy took effect after the country’s data protection agency said ChatGPT was likely to violate data collection rules. It also claims that ChatGPT does not monitor the use of its services by children under the age of 13. The AI ​​chatbot’s terms of use prohibit its use by children in this age group.

When the ban was implemented in Italy, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said he found the agency’s data collection move “hypocritical”. He notes that other online services in Italy have their own data collection and privacy issues, but are not blocked like ChatGPT.

However, countries outside of Germany are discussing their actions with Italian regulators. A spokesperson for Ireland’s data protection commissioner said they were reviewing what Italy had done with ChatGPT and “will cooperate with all EU data protection authorities on this issue”. The French government also contacted Italy about its decision.