The European Parliament has reportedly disabled built-in AI tools on official work devices used by lawmakers, citing serious cybersecurity and privacy risks.
According to reports, the parliament’s IT department warned that it cannot guarantee the safety of confidential data uploaded to external AI servers. Officials also said the full extent of what information may be shared with AI providers is still under review, making it safer to keep such features turned off for now.
The concern centers around popular AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Microsoft’s Copilot. Uploading sensitive documents or correspondence to these platforms could expose data to foreign jurisdictions. Because many of these companies operate under U.S. law, American authorities may request user data from them. Lawmakers fear that confidential political or diplomatic information could become vulnerable under such legal frameworks.
Another major issue involves how AI systems are trained and improved. Many chatbots rely on user inputs to refine their models, raising concerns that sensitive content uploaded by one user could potentially influence outputs seen by others. For institutions handling high-level legislative and diplomatic communications, even a small risk of data exposure is considered unacceptable.
The decision comes as the European Commission continues to debate changes to Europe’s strict data protection framework. While Europe is known for strong privacy laws, recent proposals to relax certain data rules to support AI development have sparked criticism from privacy advocates. At the same time, tensions between European governments and U.S. tech giants remain high, especially as American authorities increase pressure on tech firms for user data access.
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