Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the company of putting profit over safety, fueling violence and pushing a product it knew could harm users. <\/p>\n
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\u201cThe rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI\u2019s market value at unacceptable costs,\u201d the complaint reviewed by NBC News and filed Monday said. <\/p>\n
Florida is the first state to sue OpenAI and Altman over design and safety.<\/p>\n
The civil action, seeking penalties and a court order rather than criminal charges, said Uthmeier \u201cseeks to hold Altman personally liable 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\u2019 conduct.\u201d The action is separate from a criminal investigation<\/a> into OpenAI that Uthmeier opened in late April, which remains ongoing. <\/p>\n The wide-ranging 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. The suit claims that OpenAI\u2019s systems present a \u201cgreat danger of addiction, cognitive decline, suicide, violence, and related harms\u201d to users.<\/p>\n OpenAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment about Monday\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n OpenAI has maintained that it designs its systems<\/a> with \u201csafety at every step\u201d and says that it has \u201csafeguards in place to help people, especially teens, when conversations turn sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue improving ChatGPT\u2019s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support,\u201d the company says<\/a>.<\/p>\n The complaint also points to the alleged use of ChatGPT in the planning of a mass shooting at Florida State University<\/a> and the killing of two graduate students at the University of South Florida<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cLast year\u2019s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,\u201d OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri said in a statement to NBC News after the company was sued by the family of a victim of the shooting. <\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The lawsuit adds to a growing list of legal efforts brought by governments as well as private citizens against OpenAI, many of which contain similar allegations that the company\u2019s core offerings can have serious adverse effects on users.<\/p>\n OpenAI has been sued by the representatives of at least seven individuals<\/a> who allege the company\u2019s products caused users to commit suicide or develop harmful delusions.<\/p>\n OpenAI has also been sued by the families of several victims of February\u2019s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia<\/a>. The victims\u2019 families argue that OpenAI should have reported the suspect\u2019s worrying ChatGPT use months earlier to law enforcement after the suspect\u2019s gun-related interactions with ChatGPT raised alarms within OpenAI\u2019s safety teams. <\/p>\n Altman apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community<\/a> in late April, vowing to continue \u201cworking with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s suit represents the latest salvo in Florida\u2019s fight against AI companies, as Uthmeier and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have emerged as leading critics<\/a> of America\u2019s largest AI companies. <\/p>\n In December, DeSantis released a proposal to create an AI Bill of Rights<\/a> for Florida residents, highlighting individuals\u2019 right to privacy while also critiquing the construction of data centers that power AI systems. DeSantis has also clashed with the White House<\/a> to assert states\u2019 ability to regulate AI companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s suit comes amid a swell of anti-AI sentiment across the country, with many commencement speakers facing boos for mentioning AI<\/a> and data center construction running into heated public opposition<\/a>. Other AI systems have also been the target of recent legal action, as Kentucky\u2019s attorney general sued chatbot developer Character.AI in January<\/a>, accusing it of \u201cprioritizing their own profits over the safety of children.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint on Monday covers a wide array of commonly cited risks from AI, ranging from threats to teens\u2019 mental health, sycophancy, illicit provision of medical and legal advice and even existential risk to human survival.<\/p>\n Referencing several advertisements about ChatGPT\u2019s ability to help farmers and other small businesses, the suit argues: \u201cthese advertisements do not disclose that ChatGPT can be wrong, can make mistakes, or that it can provide false, nonsensical, or hallucinated information.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cChatGPT\u2019s unreliability is dangerous,\u201d the suit continues, later noting that \u201cits use can lead to self-harm, cognitive decline, and behavioral addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n The suit also criticizes ChatGPT\u2019s propensity to agree with users, arguing that the service\u2019s sycophancy can lead users to develop dangerous psychological attachment to the platform and cause users to pay money to unlock more generous usage quotas. This \u201cleads to more use of the chatbot, more training data for its improvement, and more market value for OpenAI,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n The complaint notes incidents in which ChatGPT allegedly provided dangerous medical advice to users \u2014 for example, telling teenager Sam Nelson how to mix kratom and Xanax. Nelson\u2019s mother alleges OpenAI and ChatGPT are responsible<\/a> for his wrongful death in May 2025.<\/p>\n In a statement provided to The New York Times in response to an article about Nelson, OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri said: \u201cThese interactions took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts.\u201d<\/p>\n Altman and his co-founders, including Elon Musk, launched OpenAI as a nonprofit AI research lab in 2015. It has since created a for-profit corporation that is reportedly preparing to file for an IPO,<\/a> though the for-profit entity remains legally nested under the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation. <\/p>\n