Privacy, because the Gedi group is in the storm over the agreement with OpenAI
The "strategic partnership" initiated by Gedi with OpenAI remains secret and, while journalists (kept in the dark about everything) fear being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), the Privacy Guarantor again pinches Elkann's group, of which Repubblica and La Stampa are members. Here's why
The agreement signed last September between OpenAI and Gedi – owner, among others, of Repubblica and La Stampa – is shrouded in mystery. Even for the journalists who work there, who have been trying to get answers for months but continue to come up against a wall of confidentiality.
However, the Privacy Guarantor, who had already intervened then, is now making himself heard again with a formal warning to Gedi and the companies involved in the agreement because the data of millions of people would be at risk.
THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN GEDI AND OPENAI
At the end of September , on the stage of the "Italian Tech Week" in Turin, John Elkann, CEO of Exor and now former president of Gedi (from which he distanced himself to sell Repubblica more easily ), smilingly shook Sam Altman's hand, CEO of OpenAI, with whom he announced a "strategic partnership".
The partnership, however, was never fully revealed. Gedi limited itself to communicating that the agreement will make "content in Italian from the authoritative publications of the Gedi Group accessible to ChatGPT users". That is, it will feed its articles to the AI.
THE (FEW) WORDS OF GEDI
“With this partnership – the group said in a statement -, ChatGPT users will have access to quotes, content and links to Gedi's publications, including La Repubblica and La Stampa . The collaboration will improve the relevance and access to OpenAI products, including ChatGPT and the SearchGPT prototype, for users in Italy. The partnership also offers both companies new opportunities for further collaboration on AI-based features and products, improving the way readers access and interact with news in Italy."
Elkann added that the agreement also allows Gedi “to reach a wider international audience, thanks to the advanced translation capabilities developed by ChatGPT”.
In short, data in exchange for traffic that ChatGPT would direct towards Gedi publications.
THE FIRST RECALL OF THE GUARANTOR
The response from the Privacy Guarantor was immediate: "The Guarantor for the protection of personal data carefully follows the agreements that RCS MediaGroup and Gedi Gruppo Editoriale have signed with OpenAI, the company that creates ChatGPT, and reserves the right to evaluate the adoption of more specific initiatives".
THE SECOND RECALL OF THE GUARANTOR
No sooner said than done. A formal warning arrived today. Since the digital archives of newspapers preserve the stories of millions of people, with information, details, even extremely delicate personal data, the Authority has highlighted the risk that these, as part of the agreement, will be used to train artificial intelligence .
“If the Gedi Group, pursuant to the agreement signed last September 24th with OpenAI, communicated to the latter the personal data contained in its archive, it could violate the provisions of the EU Regulation, with all the consequences, including sanctions, provided for by the legislation", states the Guarantor.
THE INVESTIGATION
On the basis of the information received as part of the investigation launched by the Authority, the latter "believes that the processing activities are intended to involve a large volume of personal data, including those of a particular nature and of a judicial nature, and that the evaluation of impact, carried out by the company and transmitted to the Guarantor, does not sufficiently analyze the legal basis under which the publisher could transfer or license the personal data present in its archive to OpenAI for use by third parties, so that it processes them to train its algorithms" .
The Guarantor also highlights "how the information and transparency obligations towards the interested parties do not appear to be sufficiently fulfilled and that Gedi is not in a position to guarantee the latter the rights to which they are entitled pursuant to the European legislation on privacy, in particular the right of opposition".
JOURNALISTS IN THE CLOSE
In addition to the issue of personal data raised by the Guarantor, there are journalists who would like to know the terms of the agreement both because the usual problem between copyright and AI arises and because they fear that ChatGPT will take their place . Cerrina Feroni, vice-president of the Guarantor, had in fact declared in recent months that "generative artificial intelligence in journalism raises crucial questions for the impact on democracy, ethics, the protection of copyright and the spread of disinformation". And therefore the human being is indispensable "to guarantee reliability, transparency and responsibility".
However, only a few weeks ago Professione Reporter reported that "the journalists of the Group's editorial committees, in a meeting with the President Maurizio Scanavino, asked to know the details. They were rejected. “Corporate confidentiality”. Although the agreement concerns content created by journalists. The Cdrs also asked for financial recognition of the work that will be used by artificial intelligence. This could give rise to a delicate and bitter dispute over a good part of the future of journalism."
Gedi, for his part, again according to Professione Reporter , despite having said that AI "will enter the editorial system with new functions that will allow the drafting of titles, summaries and summaries of texts, as well as their translations", journalists would have nothing to be feared because “there will always be a human being telling the machine what to do and giving the green light for publication”.
At the moment, however, nothing else is known.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/il-garante-privacy-mette-di-nuovo-in-guardia-gedi-per-laccordo-con-openai/ on Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:03:55 +0000.