Generative AI, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, needs to be regulated, but governing bodies must figure out how to do so properly before rushing into prohibitions that “really aren’t going to stand up”, Ireland’s data protection chief said on Thursday.
“It needs to be regulated and it’s about figuring out how to regulate it properly,” Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon told a Bloomberg conference, saying the debate extended to thousands of ChatGPT equivalents.
“For the Irish data protection commission, where we are at is trying to understand a little bit more about the technology, about the large language models, about where the training data is sourced.”
“So I think it’s early days, but it’s time to be having those conversations now rather than rushing into prohibitions that really aren’t going to stand up.”
The body that unites Europe’s national privacy watchdogs last week set up a task force on ChatGPT following a unilateral move by Italy to temporarily ban the chatbot which is rapidly growing in popularity.
