OpenAI announces that it will store customer data in Europe in response to local data protection needs

Recently, artificial intelligence development company OpenAI announced that it will allow some European customers to store and process data interacting with their chatbots within the European Union, rather than storing the data in the United States or elsewhere. This move highlights the profound impact of EU regulation on data use by large digital platforms and artificial intelligence developers.

Companies and educational institutions that pay employees or students to use chatbots will have the option to store data in Europe, according to OpenAI's statement. At the same time, if developers develop their own AI applications based on OpenAI's model, they can also choose to process user query data within the EU. OpenAI said the policy helps organizations meet local data sovereignty requirements in Europe.

Currently, many major AI developers such as OpenAI, Meta, Google and Microsoft are actively investing in building data centers to meet the needs of large-scale use of chatbots and image generation systems. However, various regulatory measures in Europe are often seen by these tech giants as obstacles to business development. Meta has been fined billions of euros by the EU for violating data protection and antitrust regulations in the past few years.

OpenAI's new policy is clearly intended to help customers circumvent these compliance issues. Digital law expert Jael Cohen-Hadria said European customers prefer to choose companies with local infrastructure, offices and legal liability chains, although these companies were originally from abroad. In addition, this move could give OpenAI a good position in the EU's public sector contracts that require strict data protection.

In order to strengthen its influence in Europe, OpenAI regards Europe as an important region for global expansion and currently has multiple offices in Paris, Brussels and Dublin. At the same time, German authorities also announced that OpenAI will open its first German office in Munich, which is expected to be officially opened within this year. OpenAI is headquartered in California and has offices in New York and Singapore.