The European Commission designated ChatGPT arsenic a very ample online hunt motor nether the Digital Services Act, making it the first AI chatbot to person the designation.
The Commission announced its determination today, on pinch 2 different designations. Reddit and Roblox are now recognized arsenic very ample online platforms, each pinch astatine slightest 45 cardinal mean monthly users successful the EU, gathering the period for the designation.
What The Designation Requires
The 3 services person 4 months from notification to meet the extra rules the DSA sets for its largest platforms and hunt engines.
What ChatGPT’s DSA nickname triggers
OpenAI’s EU disclosure put ChatGPT hunt supra the DSA threshold. ChatGPT has 4 months from notification to comply pinch the further DSA obligations.
Average monthly progressive recipients successful the EU
ChatGPT hunt mean monthly progressive recipients successful the EU; six months ending March 31, 2026. The OpenAI fig is approximate and was calculated solely for DSA compliance.
Designation
Very ample online hunt engine
August 31, 2026
Compliance window
4 months
Four months from notification to comply pinch further DSA obligations.
Additional obligations
Systemic-risk controls
Identify, assess, and mitigate risks tied to the work and its algorithmic systems.
Independent audits
Undergo an independent audit astatine slightest erstwhile a twelvemonth and respond to the auditor’s recommendations.
Regulator and interrogator access
Share information pinch the Commission and nationalist authorities, and let vetted researchers entree for qualifying systemic-risk research.
Recommenders and ads
Where applicable, connection a recommender action not based connected profiling and support a nationalist advertisement repository.
Important: Designation is not a uncovering of wrongdoing. Enforcement is simply a abstracted process.
Sources: European Commission nickname notice and DSA obligations; OpenAI DSA disclosure.
They request to place and trim the systemic risks associated pinch their services and algorithmic systems. The Commission’s database includes concerns astir forbidden content, antagonistic effects connected minors, users’ intelligence and beingness wellbeing, basal rights, electoral processes, and nationalist security.
Each work must besides beryllium audited by an extracurricular auditor each year, stock information pinch the Commission and nationalist authorities, and unfastened level information to vetted researchers. Services that usage recommender systems must connection an action that doesn’t trust connected profiling, and services that show ads must support a nationalist archive of them.
The nickname besides allows the Commission to return a person look astatine the systems down each service. That doesn’t make it a uncovering of wrongdoing. Enforcement procedures are handled separately, and if rules are broken, fines tin beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic 6% of a company’s world yearly revenue.
Why ChatGPT Counts As A Search Engine
The Commission described ChatGPT arsenic a hybrid work that qualifies arsenic an online hunt motor because it responds to users’ prompts and queries, including by searching the web.
The individual figures travel from the companies’ ain DSA disclosures alternatively than the release. OpenAI reported that ChatGPT hunt had astir 159.1 cardinal mean monthly progressive recipients successful the EU complete the six months ending March 31, 2026, much than 3 times the threshold. Reddit reported nary much than 57.2 cardinal monthly users for the first half of 2026, and Roblox estimated its mean astatine 46.6 million.
Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, information and democracy, said:
“These caller designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now beryllium held to a higher modular of scrutiny and accountability successful the European Union, successful statement pinch their ample effect connected our citizens and society.”
The determination extends a mobility I’ve tracked done the EU’s Google proceedings this year. In April, I covered the Commission’s proposal to make Google stock hunt information pinch rivals nether the Digital Markets Act. The binding type arrived successful July. The DMA and the DSA are abstracted laws. Under the July decision, chatbots pinch hunt functions tin suffice for entree to Google’s hunt information if they meet the DMA’s meaning of an online hunt engine. Today’s determination goes further and designates ChatGPT itself.
Why This Matters
This nickname clarifies ChatGPT’s domiciled nether the DSA, wherever the Commission now sees it arsenic an online hunt motor because it tin reply questions and hunt the web. The fig of astir 159.1 cardinal is OpenAI’s DSA count of mean monthly progressive recipients for ChatGPT hunt successful the EU. Over time, the transparency rules could go conscionable arsenic important arsenic the explanation itself, particularly arsenic vetted researchers will person a ineligible avenue to petition level information for studying systemic risks.
Looking Ahead
The compliance deadline is conscionable 4 months distant from today’s notification, and soon after, the first systemic consequence reports will beryllium submitted to the Commission. If a work stays beneath 45 cardinal monthly EU users for a full year, the Commission has the authority to revoke its designation.
Enforcement puts the explanation to the test, arsenic seen pinch the Commission’s DSA fines, which person reached a full of 870 cardinal euros, including 550 cardinal euros against AliExpress backmost successful July. One of the biggest questions is really the Commission will use these aforesaid rules to a chatbot successful the coming year.
Featured Image: Teodora ART/Shutterstock
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