The investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner into OpenAI was opened in response to a "complaint alleging the collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent," the agency said as quoted by AFP.

Launched in November, OpenAI's chatbot uses information available online to provide detailed answers to users' queries.

ChatGPT caused a global sensation when it was released last year for its ability to generate essays, songs, exams and even news articles from brief prompts.

But critics have long fretted that it was unclear where ChatGPT and its competitors got their data or how they processed it.

"We need to keep up with, and stay ahead of, fast-moving technological advances, and that is one of my key focus areas," said Canadian privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne.

With funding from tech giant Microsoft, which has already added the tool to several of its services, ChatGPT is sometimes touted as a potential competitor to Google's search engine.

The move by Canada's regulator comes amid growing calls for stepped up scrutiny of AI-powered technology.

Last week, billionaire Elon Musk, a founder of OpenAI but no longer a member of the board, and hundreds of global experts called for a six-month pause in research on AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, the latest iteration of the software on which ChatGPT is based, citing "profound risks to society and humanity."

Italy on Friday also became the first country in the Western world to block ChatGPT over concerns about data use.

The European police agency Europol recently warned that criminals are poised to take advantage of artificial intelligence like conversational bots to commit fraud and other cybercrimes.

Privacy concerns in Italy

OpenAI has taken ChatGPT offline in Italy after the government's Data Protection Authority last week temporarily banned the chatbot and launched a probe over the artificial intelligence application's suspected breach of privacy rules.

The agency, also known as Garante, accused Microsoft-backed OpenAI of failing to check the age of ChatGPT's users who are supposed to be aged 13 or above.

ChatGPT has an "absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data" to "train" the chatbot, Garante said. OpenAI has 20 days to respond with remedies or could risk a fine of up to 20 million euros (US$21.68 million) or 4 percent of its annual worldwide turnover.

OpenAI said it has disabled ChatGPT for users in Italy at the request of Garante.

The website could not be reached in Italy. A notice on the ChatGPT webpage said the website's owner may have set restrictions that prevent users from accessing the site.

"We actively work to reduce personal data in training our AI systems like ChatGPT because we want our AI to learn about the world, not about private individuals," OpenAI added, Reuters reported.

Italy, which has provisionally restricted ChatGPT's use of domestic users' personal data, became the first Western country to take action against a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.

The chatbot is also unavailable in mainland China, Hong Kong, Iran and Russia and parts of Africa where residents cannot create OpenAI accounts.

Since its release last year, ChatGPT has set off a tech craze, prompting rivals to launch similar products and companies to integrate it or similar technologies into their apps and products.