Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O)-backed OpenAI took ChatGPT offline in Italy last month after the country's data protection authority, also known as Garante, temporarily banned the chatbot and launched a probe over the artificial intelligence application's suspected breach of privacy rules. Last month, Garante said ChatGPT has an "absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data" to "train" the chatbot. Italy was the first western European country to curb ChatGPT, but its rapid development has attracted attention from lawmakers and regulators in several countries. Following Garante's interest in ChatGPT, European Data Protection Board, the body that unites Europe's national privacy watchdogs, set up a task force on the chatbot earlier this month. Garante said it will continue its probe of ChatGPT and will work with the special task force.

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