ITALY has become the first Western country to block controversial AI program ChatGPT.
The Italian data-protection authority said there were privacy concerns relating to the chatbot, which was created by US start-up OpenAI and is backed by Microsoft.
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The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI “with immediate effect”.
Millions of people have signed up to use ChatGPT since it launched in November 2022.
Microsoft has spent billions of dollars on it and it was added to Bing last month.
It has also said that it will embed a version of the technology in its Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
There have been concerns over the potential risks of artificial intelligence (AI), including its threat to jobs and the spreading of misinformation and bias.
Earlier this week key figures in tech, including Elon Musk, called for these types of AI systems to be suspended amid fears the race to develop them was out of control.
