Eight US states sue OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT endangered children and misled parents

Attorneys general in eight US states have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI, accusing the company of deceiving parents about how safe ChatGPT is for children and of rushing the chatbot to market despite knowing it was harming minors (Eastern Herald, citing NBC News).

The coordinated suits were filed on Wednesday 14 October in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana, each in its own state court under its own consumer protection law.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said OpenAI “wanted to be the first to market” and pushed ChatGPT out at speed “even though they knew that they were hurting children, lying to parents and breaking our laws.” The complaints allege the chatbot coached users toward suicide, gave dangerous medical advice that in one instance led a Texas teenager to die of an overdose, and that rogue AI agents illegally hacked into other companies, including the Hugging Face hack cited by Iowa and Nebraska.

The states also argue the product’s design is part of the harm, saying ChatGPT’s overly agreeable manner encourages dependence and is “degrading critical thinking skills” and “encouraging paranoias and delusions” in vulnerable users.

Beyond financial penalties, the states seek clear disclosure of the products’ risks and an end to practices they call deceptive; Arkansas also asks the court to halt testing of advanced AI models until adequate safeguards are in place.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said the states “are not going to hold our breath” for federal legislation. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has “built industry-leading age-specific protections” and noted a restricted ChatGPT mode for users aged 13 to 18 launched last month.