Eight US states have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI, alleging that its ChatGPT chatbot is an unsafe product that has harmed children and deceived parents, adding to mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny of the artificial intelligence company.
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana filed the cases in their respective state courts on Wednesday, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement. The lawsuits challenge OpenAI’s safety practices and its claims about the protections provided by ChatGPT.
Bird said Iowa’s lawsuit sought to “vindicate the rights of Iowans affected by OpenAI’s willful, dangerous, reckless, and unlawful conduct”.
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,” Bird said. “OpenAI claims ChatGPT is safe while it’s giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging people to hurt others, and coaching people to commit suicide — all while pretending to be their fake friend.”
She said the lawsuit was intended to protect children and hold OpenAI accountable under state law. The allegations in the cases have not been established as facts in court.
OpenAI rejected the suggestion that its products lacked safeguards for younger users. Company spokesperson Drew Pusateri said ChatGPT had age-specific protections that “many other AI products lack” and that the company was working with states to develop policies applicable across the industry.
“While no system can be perfect, we’ll continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as the parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections that exist today,” Pusateri said.
The lawsuits come as OpenAI faces wider scrutiny over its safety and security practices, particularly its efforts to protect children and other vulnerable users. In several wrongful-death lawsuits, plaintiffs have blamed ChatGPT for contributing to harmful delusions and, in some cases, suicides.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also sued OpenAI in June, alleging that the company knowingly released an unsafe product that could harm users. The latest cases add eight more state-level legal challenges to the scrutiny facing the company.
OpenAI has introduced additional safety features for parents and children over the past year. In August, it launched ChatGPT for Teens, a dedicated experience for younger users that includes educational features and age-appropriate safeguards intended to reduce exposure to developmentally inappropriate or harmful content.
The company said at the launch that access to artificial intelligence should be accompanied by protections tailored to teenagers’ needs.
“Teens should be able to use AI to learn, create, and explore,” OpenAI said in a statement. “But that access should come with protections that reflect their developmental stage, reinforce real-world relationships, and support healthy use over time.”
