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In Brussels, ChatGPT will have to comply with tougher safety rules after the EU added it to a list of digital services subject to greater legal scrutiny, marking a first for an AI chatbot. The EU also designated Reddit and Roblox as "very large" online platforms, which comes with additional obligations and oversight. This designation applies to platforms and search engines with more than 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc.
EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen stated that "ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society." The three platforms now have four months to comply with additional obligations under the Digital Services Act, which aims to mitigate systemic risks associated with their services and algorithmic systems.
Lena-Maria Boswald from the German tech think tank Interface noted that this move would set a "precedent" and influence regulatory expectations for all large generative AI systems used in the EU. OpenAI already has risk-management obligations under the AI Act, but the DSA could broaden the scope of these requirements. The EU has been intensifying regulatory enforcement against major digital platforms, despite pushback from the U.S.