Hey EU, your new rules for ChatGPT don’t cover chat

The European Commission on Monday designated OpenAI's ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, imposing transparency and risk-mitigation obligations similar to those for Google and Microsoft's Bing, which exceed 45 million monthly users. OpenAI risks fines of up to 6% of its annual global revenue if it fails to comply, but experts say the rules do not cover ChatGPT's use as a conversational tool or friend, leaving regulatory gaps.

The EU's decision to regulate ChatGPT as a search engine will make sense to those who use it as one. But what if you use it as a friend? Or a therapist? Or to have a chat about the upcoming election? Those are among the multitude of new questions that the advent of generative AI poses for European regulators — who, experts say, have yet to find sufficient answers. The EU executive on Monday designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, imposing a range of transparency and risk-mitigation obligations similar to those faced by traditional search leaders like Google and Microsoft’s Bing, which exceed 45 million monthly users. ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, risks fines of up to 6% of its annual global revenue if it fails to meet these requirements.