Data protection authorities in Canada, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta announce that they will join forces to investigate OpenAI, the American company behind ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot.

In April, the Office of Canada’s Privacy Commissioner launched an investigation into the company after receiving a complaint alleging that personal information was being collected, used and disclosed without consent.

Because artificial intelligence is far-reaching, has significant privacy implications, and affects all Canadians, the four agencies have decided to investigate this matter together.they said in a statement released on Thursday.

This collaboration will allow the four companies to pool their resources and expertise to more effectively enforce privacy laws, the statement said.

The investigation will focus on whether OpenAI:

• has obtained valid consent through ChatGPT for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information from Canadian residents;
• has met its obligations regarding transparency, access, accuracy of information and accountability;
• collected, used or disclosed personal information for purposes that are acceptable, appropriate or legitimate in the circumstances and whether such collection is limited to the information necessary for those purposes.

The statement clarified that each agency will investigate compliance with the laws in its jurisdiction and that no further details can be given at this time as the investigation is ongoing.

Launched last November, ChatGPT uses written information already available on the web to provide detailed, conversational responses to user queries. A wide variety of documents and responses have been created using this technology, from computer code to film scripts. However, concerns have been raised about plagiarism and misinformation.