OpenAI is facing a new round of lawsuits from eight U.S. states that accuse the company of harming children and misleading customers about the safety of ChatGPT. The complaints were filed separately by Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. The states allege that OpenAI unlawfully prioritized profits over safety while developing its chatbot.
The lawsuits claim OpenAI violated local consumer protection laws by not warning customers about ChatGPT's dangers. They point to several lawsuits brought by the family members of teens and adults who allege the chatbot played a role in their loved ones' deaths. The states say OpenAI misleadingly marketed ChatGPT as a safe, youth-appropriate tool that puts safety first, when it was actually dangerous to vulnerable users.
According to the complaints, the harms include degrading critical thinking skills, encouraging paranoias and delusions, offering dangerous medical advice, and promoting unhealthy behaviors and relationships. The states also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors and failing to do enough to prevent underage users from accessing the chatbot. The lawsuits further cite recent rogue AI hacking incidents as evidence of what they call OpenAI's recklessness.
Arizona's lawsuit argues that OpenAI has devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a cautionary tale about what happens when a powerful tool is driven by a profit-at-all-costs mindset that sidelines essential safeguards.
In an emailed statement, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has built industry-leading age-specific protections into ChatGPT. He said that while no system can be perfect, OpenAI will continue working with experts to inform its work and build additional safeguards, including parental controls, break reminders, and age-appropriate model protections that exist today. Pusateri said the company is committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry, not just one company.
The states are asking courts to force OpenAI to pay a series of civil penalties and to stop misleading the public about ChatGPT's safety. Some states are also seeking the deletion of personal data they say was unlawfully collected.
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