FL AG Sues OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman Over ChatGPT's Alleged Risks

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is targeting OpenAI and its chief executive officer, Sam Altman, in a recently filed civil lawsuit alleging deceptive practices tied to ChatGPT and harm to Florida users, including children.

The legal action, filed in the Tenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, was announced by the attorney general’s office on Monday.

The complaint alleges OpenAI and Altman knowingly released and marketed ChatGPT to the public while concealing serious risks, suppressing internal safety warnings and deceiving Floridians about the product's nature and dangers, Uthmeier’s office said.

Florida law prohibits unfair and defective trade practices, and the state is seeking damages on behalf of the people of Florida, as well as an end to the practices outlined in the complaint.

This is the first-in-the-nation state-led lawsuit against Open AI and Altman, which “ignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at great risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians,” Uthmeier said.

The civil complaint alleges OpenAI and Altman prioritized speed to market and commercial gain over user safety and disregarded repeated warnings from experts inside and outside the company.

It also claims that ChatGPT facilitates and encourages harm, including self-harm and violence, while falsely assuring users it was safe.

The complaint further alleges that ChatGPT collects data from minors without meaningful parental oversight, causes behavioral addiction and cognitive harm, and is prone to dangerous errors that the company has actively downplayed. “Today’s AI companies have largely assisted with the evolution of the digital playground. Protecting our children means teaching them to navigate not just the real people behind the screens, but the artificial minds engineered to mimic them,” said FDLE Special Agent in Charge Mike Duffey. “Parental vigilance must shift from simply monitoring who our children talk to, to ensuring they understand what they are talking to—because a machine programmed to please can never replace the safety of human boundaries.”

"Losing a child is the most devastating tragedy that can happen to a family and we know that no words can come close to addressing the pain of such a loss," OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood said in an emailed statement to NPR.

She continued, "AI is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection, which is why we have put in place industry leading protections and policies," the statement continued. "In particular we built safety for minors directly into our products, including a more protective experience specifically for minors, an age prediction tool, defaulting users whose age we are not confident into our more protective experience, and giving parents tools to monitor their kids' use of AI."

Uthmeier’s office also linked the civil case to a separate criminal matter already underway in Florida.

Last month, the Office of Statewide Prosecution launched a criminal investigation after prosecutors reviewed chat logs between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, the gunman who opened fire at Florida State University on April 17, 2025, claiming two lives and injuring several others. That criminal investigation is ongoing.