Ulrich Kelber, in an interview with Handelsblatt, stated that Germany is considering banning the AI bot ChatGPT due to concerns over breaches of privacy.
Kelber added that any such action would be taken at a German Federal state level. Italy had previously banned the AI bot after an investigation into its access to data with other EU countries, including France and Ireland, also requesting the findings.
It is unclear how an EU ban would work as OpenAI operates without offices in the EU.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI had taken ChatGPT offline in Italy after the national data agency temporarily banned the chatbot.
In response to an open letter signed by computer experts, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, urging a pause in the development of systems more advanced than GPT-4, Bill Gates commented. GPT-4 is the recently upgraded new version of the bot that is capable of holding conversations and composing songs.
Gates believed it was better to focus on how best to use the developments in AI and to identify the tricky areas.
