MILAN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Italy's data protection

watchdog has warned Italian publisher GEDI not to share its

personal data archives with ChatGPT owner OpenAI, it said on

Friday, citing concern over potential breaches of EU rules.

GEDI, owned by the Agnelli family's holding company Exor

, announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI in

September to bring Italian-language content from the publisher's

portfolio of news outlets to users of the Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed

artificial intelligence startup.

In Italy, GEDI publishes daily newspapers la Repubblica and

La Stampa.

Under the OpenAI deal, ChatGPT users will have access to

attributed quotes, content and links to GEDI's publications

while GEDI's journalism can also be used to improve accuracy of

OpenAI products.

"The digital archives of newspapers contain the stories of

millions of people, with information, details and even extremely

sensitive personal data that cannot be licensed without due care

for use by third parties to train artificial intelligence," the

regulator, known as GPDP, said in a statement.

"If GEDI, on the basis of the agreement signed with OpenAI,

were to disclose to the latter the personal data contained in

its archive, it could violate EU regulation, with all the

consequences, including those of a sanctioning nature."

GEDI and OpenAI representatives were not immediately

available for comment.

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro

Editing by David Goodman

)