Japanese regulators warn OpenAI: ChatGPT is not allowed to collect sensitive data without user permission

CTOnews.com, June 2 (Reuters)-Japan's personal Information Protection Committee, which is responsible for privacy regulation, said on Friday that it had issued a warning to ChatGPT developer OpenAI not to collect sensitive data without user permission.

▲ source Pexels the committee said in a statement that OpenAI should minimize the sensitive data collected to enhance machine learning capabilities, while the committee reserves the right to take further action.

The analysis points out that although Japan appears to be lagging behind in the recent development trend of AI technology, it is generally believed that Japan has more motivation to keep up with this trend in order to cope with the labor shortage caused by the continuous decline of population.

The committee said the industry needed to strike a balance between privacy issues and the potential benefits of generative AI, including accelerating innovation and tackling climate change.

Japan is currently the third-largest source of traffic to OpenAI sites, according to analytics firm Similarweb.

CTOnews.com had previously reported that Sam Altman, OpenAI chief executive, met in April with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, who also chaired discussions on AI regulation at the recent G7 summit. Altman then visited Europe last week to discuss AI regulation with EU leaders and said OpenAI had no plans to leave Europe.