The European Union just put OpenAI’s ChatGPT under the same legal designation as Google. That means the AI chatbot will now face greater scrutiny and stricter rules over in Europe.
The European Commission announced Monday that ChatGPT is now big enough to be considered a “Very Large Online Search Engine,” while Reddit and Roblox have crossed the threshold to be designated “Very Large Online Platforms,” under its Digital Services Act (DSA).
Online services receive these legal designations once they reach at least 45 million monthly users in the European Union.
ChatGPT likely crossed that threshold a while ago given its more than 1 billion weekly users globally. But the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive branch, reportedly struggled with whether to classify the AI chatbot as a search engine or an online platform.
The Digital Services Act, passed in 2022, sets rules for large online services to protect users from illegal and harmful content. But it was written before generative AI went fully mainstream and did not clearly spell out how AI services like ChatGPT should be classified.
For now, the European Commission has landed on search engine.
“These new designations mean 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,” said the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen in a press release. “We continue to watch the digital landscape closely and will not hesitate to designate any platform that meets the threshold for enhanced supervision under the Digital Services Act.”
Before ChatGPT, Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing were the only search engines to receive the “very large” designation.
The list of Very Large Online Platforms, meanwhile, includes social media services largely built around user-generated content, such as Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok, as well as online marketplaces like Amazon and Apple’s App Store.
ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now have to follow the additional rules reserved for these very large services. For instance, they will have to assess systemic risks posed by their services and algorithms and explain how they plan to mitigate them.
Those risks include the spread of illegal content, negative effects on minors and users’ physical and mental well-being, threats to fundamental rights, and their impacts on elections and public security.
The designation also gives the European Commission greater authority to oversee and investigate the services.
ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox now have four months to comply with the additional requirements. Companies that violate the DSA can ultimately face fines of up to 6% of their annual worldwide revenue.
The Commission has already shown it is willing to use those powers.
In December, it slapped Elon Musk’s X with a fine of 120 million euros over the platform’s “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark verification badges, as well as a lack of transparency around its advertisers.
The Commission has also found that TikTok’s infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommendation system likely violate the DSA.
“Reddit is committed to complying with the EU Digital Services Act. We’ve been preparing to meet the VLOP requirements and look forward to coordinating with EU regulators while providing transparency for Reddit users,” a Reddit spokesperson told Gizmodo in an emailed statement.
OpenAI and Roblox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
