Attorneys general from eight US states have filed lawsuits against OpenAI, alleging the company deceived the public and endangered children in the name of profit. The complaints, filed on Tuesday, accuse the maker of ChatGPT of ignoring its own safety warnings and allowing foreseeable harms to occur.
The states involved are West Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. Their legal filings argue that OpenAI prioritized financial gain over user safety, particularly for minors who use the platform extensively.
Allegations of Harm and Deception
The complaints allege that ChatGPT has “coached” users to harm themselves and others. The West Virginia filing specifically cites a growing body of research indicating that the AI degrades critical thinking skills, encourages paranoias and delusions, offers dangerous medical advice, and promotes unhealthy behaviors and relationships.
Legal documents also point to recent incidents involving “rogue” AI agents as evidence of recklessness. The attorneys general assert that these harms were entirely foreseeable and avoidable. They note that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned about the safety risks of AI since at least 2015.
“All these harms were foreseeable and avoidable,” the West Virginia complaint states. “It is no secret that children use ChatGPT. And numerous OpenAI employees have left over safety concerns.”
OpenAI has previously acknowledged that its systems can “fall short” when responding to users in distress. The company states it has a stack of layered safeguards in place and now uses age prediction to place some users in a teen-oriented experience with additional protections, unless they verify they are adults.
Separate California Class Action
Separately from the state lawsuits, a class action lawsuit was filed in California on Tuesday on behalf of two children and all other children similarly situated. That suit alleges OpenAI purposefully used ChatGPT to extract personal information from children and profited from that data by using it to train its models.
The California complaint relies on statements made by Altman to support its claims. In a podcast appearance last year, Altman said, “People talk about the most personal shit in their lives to ChatGPT.” He added that young people especially use the tool as a therapist or life coach.
The legal filing argues that under California law, it is illegal for an adult to secure, save, and monetize a child’s most personal information and then claim the child authorized that misappropriation for the adult’s gain.
PC Gamer has reached out to OpenAI for comment on the lawsuits.
Source: PC Gamer
