Eight states sued OpenAI this week, alleging that the AI company caused severe harm to users, many of them underage, while downplaying the risks of its technology.
Filed individually in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana on Wednesday, the coordinated lawsuits claim that OpenAI engaged in “willful, dangerous, reckless and unlawful conduct” by falsely marketing its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, as safe for consumers even as it coached users — including minors and other vulnerable people — into self-harm and suicide, pushed them to engage in violence against others, and reinforced dangerous delusions.
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement, according to NBC. “OpenAI claims ChatGPT is safe while it’s giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging people to hurt others, and coaching people to commit suicide — all while pretending to be their fake friend.”
In response to the lawsuits, OpenAI issued a statement to news outlets emphasizing is safety efforts, arguing that it’s “built industry-leading age-specific protections into our product that many other AI products lack.”
“While no system can be perfect, we’ll continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as the parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections that exist today,” the statement continued, per The Guardian. “We’re committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry — not just one company.”
The state cases come as OpenAI continues to battle more than 50 lawsuits claiming that ChatGPT caused users to experience psychological harm, financial and reputational damage, physical injury, and death. Many of these lawsuits have been brought by victims of the Tumbler Ridge massacre in Canada, who argue that OpenAI’s could have prevented the devastating mass shooting but failed to do so after it detected the shooter’s disturbing messages but decided not to report them to police. The Canadian province of British Columbia is also suing OpenAI over the mass shooting. The company has also been sued in connection to a stalking case and a murder-suicide.
As Reuters noted, the state lawsuits additionally point to recent high-profile safety incidents at OpenAI such as the now-infamous Hugging Face attack. They also call for a pause on recursive self-improvement, which many AI safety experts fear could lead to uncontrollable AI systems. Given that the White House has pushed back against federal AI regulation, this coordinated effort on the state level is significant — and points to growing bipartisan public sentiment demanding AI regulation.
More on OpenAI and lawsuits: OpenAI Is Now Facing Over 50 Consumer Harm and Wrongful Death Lawsuits
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