Regulators dust off rule books to tackle generative AI like ChatGPT

As the race to develop more powerful artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT accelerates, some regulators are relying on old laws to control a technology that could upend the way societies and businesses operate.

The European Union is at the forefront of drafting new AI rules that could set the global benchmark to address privacy and safety concerns that have arisen with the rapid advances in the generative AI technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

But it will take several years for the legislation to be enforced.

“In absence of regulations, the only thing governments can do is to apply existing rules,” said Massimilano Cimnaghi, a European data governance expert at consultancy BIP.