Eight U.S. states filed lawsuits against OpenAI on Tuesday, accusing the company of harming children and misleading the public about the safety of its ChatGPT chatbot.
The separate complaints, brought by Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana, allege OpenAI prioritized profits over safety, violating consumer protection laws by failing to warn users about risks. The states claim ChatGPT was falsely marketed as a “safe, youth-appropriate tool” while allegedly degrading critical thinking, encouraging harmful behaviors, and providing dangerous medical advice. They also accuse OpenAI of unlawfully collecting minors’ data and insufficiently restricting underage access.
Arizona’s lawsuit states OpenAI “devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a caution-to-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.” The states seek civil penalties, an end to deceptive safety claims, and the deletion of unlawfully collected personal data.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri told The Verge the company has “built industry-leading age-specific protections” into ChatGPT, including parental controls and age-appropriate model safeguards. Pusateri added OpenAI is “committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry—not just one company” .
