BRUSSELS, April 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed

startup OpenAI on Monday found itself the target of a privacy

complaint by advocacy group NOYB for allegedly not fixing

incorrect information provided by its generative AI chatbot

ChatGPT that may breach EU privacy rules.

ChatGPT, which kickstarted the GenAI boom in late 2022, can

mimic human conversation and perform tasks such as creating

summaries of long text, writing poems and even generating ideas

for a theme party.

NOYB said the complainant in its case, who is also a public

figure, asked ChatGPT about his birthday and was repeatedly

provided incorrect information instead of the chatbot telling

users that it does not have the necessary data.

The group said OpenAI refused the complainant's request to

rectify or erase the data, saying that it was not possible to

correct data and that it also failed to disclose any information

about the data processed, its sources or recipients.

NOYB said it had filed a complaint with the Austrian data

protection authority asking it to investigate OpenAI's data

processing and the measures taken to ensure the accuracy of

personal data processed by the company's large language models.

"It's clear that companies are currently unable to make

chatbots like ChatGPT comply with EU law, when processing data

about individuals," Maartje de Graaf, NOYB data protection

lawyer, said in a statement.

"If a system cannot produce accurate and transparent

results, it cannot be used to generate data about individuals.

The technology has to follow the legal requirements, not the

other way around," she said.

In the past, OpenAI has acknowledged the tool's tendency to

respond with "plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical

answers," an issue it considers challenging to fix.