Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging the company put profit over safety.

“Today, we announced the first-in-the-nation state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman,” Uthmeier said.

“OpenAI and Altman ignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at great risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians,” he continued.

The lawsuit makes Florida the first state to sue OpenAI over claims that ChatGPT poses a risk to children and that the company failed to disclose the chatbot’s dangers.

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In the 83-page lawsuit, which was filed in Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit, the state said OpenAI had built “a dangerous online product where harmful information such as tips on eating disorders, self-harm and mass murder are readily available, including to young children.”

The company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, had engaged in negligence and violated Florida’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive practices, the state added.

“They have chosen profit over public safety,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, at a Monday news conference. He added that the company and its chief executive could be liable for up to billions of dollars in damages or penalties.

The lawsuit is the latest example of intensifying scrutiny over the effects of A.I. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other companies have faced tough questions about the negative effects of their popular chatbots, including a series of lawsuits over children who interacted with chatbots before they died by suicide.

More broadly, policymakers and voters alike have grown increasingly worried about the fallout from the widespread rollout of A.I., including the potential for skyrocketing energy prices from powering the technology, as well as its potential to put swaths of the population out of work.

“The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI’s market value at unacceptable costs,” the complaint read, according to NBC News.

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OpenAI has maintained that it designs its systems with “safety at every step” and says that it has “safeguards in place to help people, especially teens, when conversations turn sensitive.”

“We continue improving ChatGPT’s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support,” the company says.

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The complaint also points to the alleged use of ChatGPT in the planning of a mass shooting at Florida State University and the killing of two graduate students at the University of South Florida.

“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri said in a statement to NBC News after the company was sued by the family of a victim of the shooting.

“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” he said.

The lawsuit adds to a growing list of legal efforts brought by governments as well as private citizens against OpenAI, many of which contain similar allegations that the company’s core offerings can have serious adverse effects on users.

OpenAI has been sued by the representatives of at least seven individuals who allege the company’s products caused users to commit suicide or develop harmful delusions.

 

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