Italian Watchdog Cautions GEDI on Data Sharing with OpenAI

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's data protection watchdog has warned Italian publisher GEDI not to share its personal data archives with ChatGPT owner OpenAI, it said on Friday, citing concern over potential breaches of EU rules.

GEDI, owned by the Agnelli family's holding company Exor, announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI in September to bring Italian-language content from the publisher's portfolio of news outlets to users of the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup.

In Italy, GEDI publishes daily newspapers la Repubblica and La Stampa.

Under the OpenAI deal, ChatGPT users will have access to attributed quotes, content and links to GEDI's publications while GEDI's journalism can also be used to improve accuracy of OpenAI products. 

"The digital archives of newspapers contain the stories of millions of people, with information, details and even extremely sensitive personal data that cannot be licensed without due care for use by third parties to train artificial intelligence," the regulator said in a statement.

"If GEDI, on the basis of the agreement signed with OpenAI, were to disclose to the latter the personal data contained in its archive, it could violate EU regulation, with all the consequences, including those of a sanctioning nature."

GEDI said that the agreement it signed with OpenAI did not involve the sale of personal data. "The project has not been launched yet therefore no editorial content has been made available to OpenAI at the moment and will not be until the reviews under way are completed," it said in a statement.

The Italian publisher said it would continue to discuss with the authority and hoped that "a constructive dialogue can be quickly opened to protect the interests and rights of all the parties involved".

OpenAI representatives were not immediately available for comment.  

(Reporting by Gianluca SemeraroEditing by David Goodman and Marguerita Choy)