Italy closes antitrust probes into AI firms after commitments on 'hallucination' risks

Italy's antitrust authority said ​on Thursday it ​had closed investigations into three ​AI companies over allegedly unfair commercial practices involving generative artificial intelligence, after accepting binding commitments ‌from them.

The ⁠regulator, ⁠known as the AGCM, also polices consumer rights.

It said it had targeted China's DeepSeek, France's Mistral AI SAS and Turkey's Scaleup Yazilim Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi over risks of so-called AI hallucinations - the ⁠generation of ‌inaccurate or misleading content.


In ​response, ​the three companies have agreed ⁠to better inform users about hallucination risks ​via their websites and apps, ​adding permanent disclaimers to their chatbot services, the authority said.

DeepSeek also agreed to invest in technology to reduce the risk of hallucinations, while ‌acknowledging that current technology cannot prevent them entirely.

As part of its ​commitments, NOVA ​AI, the ⁠cross-platform chatbot service offered by Scaleup, agreed to make clear to consumers that its ​service provides a single interface for accessing several chatbots and does not aggregate or process their responses, AGCM said.