Florida attorney general sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over harm by chatbot
florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a new civil complaint against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT was developed and marketed with profits prioritized over user safety.The lawsuit asks the court to hold Altman personally liable and requires compliance with Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The filing claims OpenAI misrepresented chatgpt’s capabilities to manage risks,and it cites alleged harms including assistance in violent acts (pointing to a Florida State University mass shooting and killings at the University of South Florida),encouragement of suicide,emotional and professional harms,and risks of addiction and data collection-particularly for minors.
OpenAI disputes obligation, saying its systems include safeguards and that it continually updates training and guidelines to handle mental health crises, de-escalate sensitive conversations, and guide users toward real-world support. this civil case is separate from a criminal investigation OpenAI is facing that seeks to determine whether the company coudl be criminally responsible for ChatGPT’s role in last year’s Florida State University shooting.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday filed a new complaint against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging the ChatGPT maker knowingly put profits over user safety to win the artificial intelligence “arms race.”
The lawsuit seeks to hold Altman liable for allegedly harming Floridians by failing to implement safeguards in ChatGPT and asks the company to comply with Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Monday’s filing marks the first time a state has brought a lawsuit against Altman and his company.
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Uthmeier said the state is looking to hold Altman accountable for “the harm he has caused Floridians through his reckless and willful conduct as founder and CEO of OpenAI, including his utter disregard for the risk to human life caused by his firms’ conduct,” according to filings reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
The complaint opens with a photo of a ChatGPT safety disclosure blog post that claims the company works with experts to regularly update systems to reduce risks to users. Below the photo, the complaint immediately alleges, “Not so.”
Uthmeier alleges Altman and OpenAI misrepresented what their systems were capable of, leading to a “litany of harms.”
“Because of Defendants’ misrepresentations about ChatGPT and their careless introduction of ChatGPT to Florida and the world, mass shooters have been aided and abetted in deadly rampages, vulnerable people have been encouraged into suicide, professionals have suffered public humiliation, users have lost critical thinking skills, and minors have become addicted to a tool that feigns human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight,” the filing said.
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of 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.
“ChatGPT was designed by the Defendants to keep users hooked into conversations by any means, regardless of the truth, because it leads to more use of the chatbot, more training data for its improvement, and more market value for OpenAI,” the filing said.
The lawsuit also alleges that OpenAI’s systems exhibit a “great danger of addition, cognitive decline, suicide, violence, and related harms to users.”
Uthmeier specifically points to the mass shooting at Florida State University and the killing of two students at the University of South Florida as instances where ChatGPT aided in acts of violence.
According to its website, OpenAI continually reviews and updates its user guidelines and safeguards in order to adequately respond to mental health crises users experience, particularly among teenagers.
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“We have safeguards in place to help people, especially teens, when conversations turn sensitive,” the company wrote. “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. This work is deeply important and ongoing as we engage mental health experts, clinicians and advocacy groups to help guide our continued improvements in these areas.”
The civil action is separate from a criminal investigation opened into OpenAI’s chatbot in April, which seeks to determine whether OpenAI is criminally responsible for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting at Florida State University last year.
OpenAI previously told the Washington Examiner that ChatGPT is not responsible for the crime, arguing the platform merely “provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to OpenAI for comment.
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