Florida sues OpenAI and Sam Altman because they think ChatGPT is unsafe for kids
Florida wants billions of dollars in damages because it says ChatGPT exposes kids to harmful content and bad behavior.
The state of Florida is the first in the US to sue OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The state says the company lied about how safe its ChatGPT platform was and let kids see dangerous content on it.
A Republican named James Uthmeier brought the lawsuit on Monday in a Florida state court. He said that ChatGPT has hurt young users by providing them with information about school shootings, advice on how to hurt themselves, and ideas on how to become addicted.
In this case, a US state is taking OpenAI to court for the first time. The lawsuit discusses a shooting at Florida State University last year as well as other events in other states where ChatGPT is said to have given information to people who then did violent acts.
At a news conference, Uthmeier said that Altman was named in the lawsuit because he was “very central” to creating features that the attorney general said were harmful.
Uthmeier told reporters, “They need to pay for hurting people and lying to parents.”
The case asks for damages that could reach billions of dollars and for OpenAI to be told by the court to change how ChatGPT talks to kids.
A spokesperson for OpenAI did not reply right away to requests for comment.
The business has said in the past that it trains its AI to turn down requests that could “meaningfully enable violence” and that it calls the police when talks show “an imminent and credible risk of harm to others.” OpenAI also said that mental health professionals help them figure out tough cases.
In April, Uthmeier said that he had started a criminal probe into ChatGPT’s possible role in the 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University. This came after prosecutors looked at chat logs between the suspected gunman and the chatbot.
The case is the latest in a string of legal problems. AI companies are facing overblown claims that chatbots can lead to violent acts, self-harm, and mental health issues.
OpenAI is also defending itself against a separate lawsuit filed by the family of a victim killed in the Florida State University shooting. The family says that ChatGPT helped the shooter plan the attack.
In April, the families of victims from one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings sued OpenAI and Altman, claiming that the companies knew months before the attack that the gunman would use ChatGPT to cause harm but did not inform the police.
