Canada’s privacy commissioner in Ottawa has launched an investigation into the wildly popular artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as ChatGPT.
The federal watchdog announced that it is investigating both ChatGPT and the U.S. company OpenAI that created the chatbot after receiving a complaint about the collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent.
Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne said in a written statement that artificial intelligence and its effects on privacy are a priority for his office.
Dufresne added that his office will publicly report on the investigation’s findings, though a timeline for when that might be was not disclosed.
ChatGPT was launched last November and is based on large language model technology. The artificial intelligence (A.I.) chatbot can be used to do everything from write school essays and computer code to compose songs and draw pictures.
The ChatGPT app has become the most popular in history, having been downloaded more than 10 million times in a matter of months.
While OpenAI is a privately held company, it has attracted a $10 billion U.S. investment from Microsoft (MSFT), which is incorporating the A.I. technology into its Bing search engine.
Critics have raised concerns about plagiarism and other dangers posed by advanced artificial intelligence.
Last week, Italy's privacy watchdog ordered a ban on ChatGPT while it investigates a suspected breach of data rules.
At the same time, the European Union (EU) is negotiating a law that would classify artificial intelligence programs and tools based on their perceived level of risk.
Last week, a group of technology leaders, including Tesla (TSLA) chief executive Elon Musk and Apple (APPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak called in an open letter for a six-month moratorium on artificial intelligence development.
The letter stated that there has been an “out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control.”
