OpenAI plans to block people from using ChatGPT in China, a country where its services are not officially available, but where users and developers access it anyway through the company’s API. Securities TimesOpenAI began sending emails to users in China outlining plans to block access starting July 9, China’s state-run newspaper said Tuesday. according to for Reuters.
“We are taking additional taps to block API traffic from regions where we do not support access to OpenAI services,” an OpenAI spokesperson told the publication. The move could affect several Chinese startups that have built applications using OpenAI’s large language models.
Although OpenAI services are available in more than 160 countries, China is not one of them. According to the company’s guidelines, users who try to access the company’s products in unsupported countries may be blocked or suspended, although the company has not made this public so far.
It’s not clear what prompted OpenAI’s move. Last month the company revealed It said it has stopped covert influence operations, including operations from China, that use artificial intelligence models to spread disinformation internally. Bloomberg shown OpenAI’s move coincides with Washington’s pressure on American tech companies to limit China’s access to advanced technologies developed in the United States.
