US urged to investigate the type of AI that powers systems like ChatGPT
Jun 20, 2023, 5:42 AM | Updated: 8:38 am
Lawmakers vote on the Artificial Intelligence act Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, to investigate the type of artificial intelligence underpinning systems like ChatGPT, citing risks that leave people vulnerable and the delay before the bloc鈥檚 groundbreaking AI regulations take effect. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators on Tuesday to investigate the type of artificial intelligence underpinning systems like ChatGPT, citing聽聽and the delay before the bloc鈥檚 groundbreaking AI regulations take effect.
In a coordinated effort, 13 watchdog groups wrote to their national consumer, data protection, competition and product safety authorities warning them about a聽.
A transatlantic coalition of consumer groups also wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden asking him to聽聽from possible harms caused by generative AI.
Europe has led the world in聽, which gained urgency with the rise of a new breed of artificial intelligence that gives AI chatbots like ChatGPT the power to generate text, images, video and audio that resemble human work.
The EU is putting the finishing touches on the聽聽for the technology, but they are not expected to take effect for two years.
The groups called for European and U.S. leaders to use both existing laws and bring in new legislation to address the聽.
They cited a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council outlining dangers that AI chatbots pose, including providing incorrect medical information, manipulating people, making up news articles and illegally using vast amounts of聽.
The consumer groups, in countries including Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece and Denmark, warn that while the EU鈥檚 AI Act addresses some of the concerns, they won鈥檛 start applying for several years, 鈥渓eaving consumers unprotected from a technology which is insufficiently regulated in the meantime, and developing at great pace.鈥�
Some authorities have already acted. Italy鈥檚 privacy watchdog聽聽user鈥檚 personal information while it investigated a possible data breach. France, Spain and Canada also have been looking into OpenAI and ChatGPT.
