TALLAHASSEE — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the company of putting profit over safety, fueling violence, and pushing a product it knew could harm users. The civil action, filed in state court, marks the first lawsuit by any U.S. state targeting OpenAI’s AI design and safety protocols.
The complaint alleges OpenAI engaged in four counts of deceptive and unfair trade practices, two counts of negligence, two counts of violating product liability laws, and one count each of fraudulent misrepresentation and causing a public nuisance. Uthmeier seeks penalties and a court order to compel changes in OpenAI’s operations, rather than criminal charges. He also aims to hold Altman personally liable for what the suit describes as “reckless and willful conduct that endangered Floridians through his utter disregard for the risk to human life caused by his firms’ conduct.”
“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 lawsuit states. It further claims OpenAI’s systems pose “a great danger of addiction, cognitive decline, suicide, violence, and related harms” to users.
The suit argues that OpenAI’s marketing misleads consumers by failing to disclose ChatGPT’s potential to produce false or hallucinated information. “These advertisements do not disclose that ChatGPT can be wrong, can make mistakes, or that it can provide false, nonsensical, or hallucinated information,” the complaint reads. “ChatGPT’s unreliability is dangerous,” it adds.
The lawsuit references 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. In prior statements about the FSU case, OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri said, “Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime.” He added, “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.”
OpenAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Monday’s lawsuit. The company has previously maintained that it designs its systems with “safety at every step” and has “safeguards in place to help people, especially teens, when conversations turn sensitive.” It also says, “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 lawsuit is separate from a criminal investigation into OpenAI that Uthmeier opened in late April, which remains ongoing.