Suit alleging ChatGPT is an unsafe product follows criminal investigation over its role in campus mass shooting
Florida fired a new broadside in a growing rebellion against alleged safety failings of artificial-intelligence chatbots, becoming the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, claims OpenAI and Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings that it could harm users.
The 83-page suit alleges that OpenAI allowed ChatGPT to aid and abet mass shooters, encourage people to take their own lives, degrade users’ critical thinking skills and addict minors to a tool that feigns human compassion.
“This litany of harms is driven by Defendants’ insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT,” the suit says.
OpenAI didn’t immediately comment on the suit. OpenAI has previously denied wrongdoing and has said the company continues to strengthen its safeguards.
Lawmakers, legal authorities and public interest groups have increasingly been raising concerns about the personal and societal risks posed by AI, one of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in history.
The suit says it seeks to protect Floridians from OpenAI’s conduct and mitigate what it describes as a dangerous public nuisance.
The suit also seeks to hold Altman personally liable for harm it says he has caused Floridians.
Uthmeier opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI in April over the role its chatbot played in a mass shooting that killed two people at Florida State University last year.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Updates to follow as news develops.
