City fined over AI-tool misuse

The northern city of Trento has been fined for breaking data-protection rules in the way it used artificial intelligence in street surveillance projects.

Trento was fined 50,000 euros (HK$424,650) by the privacy watchdog and told to delete all data gathered in two European Union-funded projects. It is the first local administration in Italy to be sanctioned by the watchdog over the use of data from AI tools.

The authority - one of the EU's most proactive in assessing AI compliance with the bloc's regime - last year briefly banned chatbot ChatGPT in Italy. In 2021, it also said a facial recognition system tested by the Interior Ministry did not comply with laws.

After an in-depth investigation of the Trento projects, the watchdog found "multiple violations of privacy regulations," it said, while recognizing the municipality acted in good faith.

It said the data collected was not sufficiently anonymous, and that it was incorrectly shared with third parties.

But the municipality said the decision highlights how "current legislation is totally insufficient to regulate the use of AI to analyze large amounts of data and improve city security."