The Italian data protection regulator has initiated an investigation into OpenAI’s Sora, a newly announced text-to-video artificial intelligence model. This probe, announced on Friday, focuses on the data utilized to train Sora and OpenAI’s data processing procedures. Sora, capable of generating videos up to a minute long based on text-based prompts, is currently in beta stage and will be integrated into OpenAI products in the coming months.
As part of the investigation, OpenAI has been given 20 days to respond to inquiries posed by the Italian agency regarding the training algorithms, types of collected data, and adherence to data protection regulations. This inquiry follows previous regulatory actions against OpenAI, including a temporary ban on its large language model chatbot due to violations of European data protection laws. Despite changes implemented by OpenAI, ongoing scrutiny in Europe, including in Germany, France, Spain, and Poland, underscores the broader regulatory challenges faced by AI companies.
The increased scrutiny from European regulators coincides with the impending implementation of the AI Act, which aims to comprehensively regulate AI technologies and prohibit certain applications such as emotion recognition and facial data scraping. OpenAI’s introduction of an updated privacy policy in response to heightened European scrutiny reflects the company’s efforts to address privacy concerns and comply with evolving regulatory requirements. Amidst these regulatory challenges, OpenAI users now have the ability to object to the processing of their data for direct marketing or legitimate interest under the revised policy.
