Eight states file lawsuits accusing OpenAI of hiding ChatGPT's risks to kids

Eight U.S. states sued OpenAI, accusing the company of hiding the risks ChatGPT poses to children and other vulnerable users while marketing the chatbot as safe. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana each filed separate complaints, first reported by Reuters, under their own consumer protection laws. Each state is pursuing its claim independently rather than as a joint action. The complaints allege OpenAI unlawfully put profit ahead of safety as it developed and marketed the chatbot.

The lawsuits say OpenAI called ChatGPT “a safe, youth-appropriate tool that puts safety first” even as the product caused real harm. The complaints point to earlier lawsuits filed by families of teens and adults who died, which allege the chatbot played a role in those deaths. The states argue the chatbot degraded users’ critical thinking, encouraged paranoia and delusions, gave dangerous medical advice, and promoted unhealthy behaviors and relationships.

The complaints also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors and not doing enough to stop underage users from accessing ChatGPT in the first place. Several states cite recent incidents of rogue AI hacking as further evidence of what they call OpenAI’s recklessness.

Arizona’s complaint argues OpenAI has shifted from its founding mission as a nonprofit focused on safety. Its filing states that OpenAI “has devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a cautionary tale about what can happen when the development of a tool as powerful as AI is driven not by safety, but by a profit-at-all-costs mindset that sidelines essential safeguards.”

OpenAI’s response

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri told The Verge the company has built “industry-leading age-specific protections” into ChatGPT, including parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections. Pusateri said no system can be perfect and that OpenAI will keep working with experts and states on AI policies that apply across the industry rather than to a single company.

The states are asking courts to impose civil penalties on OpenAI and to stop it from making misleading safety claims. Some are also seeking deletion of personal data they say was collected unlawfully from minors. OpenAI has not detailed how it plans to contest the specific allegations in each state’s filing. Whether other states join the effort, and how OpenAI’s existing parental controls hold up in court, will shape how far this multi-state push reaches.