A coalition of state attorneys general has opened an investigation into OpenAI.<\/p>\n
The company was served with a subpoena from New York\u2019s attorney general on Friday<\/a>, according to The Wall Street Journal. That subpoena sought documents related to a broad range of topics including the company\u2019s advertising, user engagement and retention, model sycophancy, handling of consumer data and health data, and treatment of minors and seniors.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is a new and powerful technology, and we work every day to safely bring its benefits to people in a responsible way,\u201d an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cWe take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously and intend to engage constructively with their offices.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson also said, \u201cToday\u2019s ChatGPT includes a more protective experience for minors and people experiencing difficult situations, with safeguards that direct them to real-world resources and trusted human contacts. We believe kids should be treated like kids, which is why we built age prediction, released parental tools to guide their children\u2019s use of AI, and disallowed advertising that targets kids.\u201d<\/p>\n The company did not specify which states are involved in the investigation or share more details about what information was requested. TechCrunch has also reached out to New York attorney general\u2019s office for confirmation.<\/p>\n OpenAI recently defeated its co-founder Elon Musk<\/a> in a high-profile trial, after Musk accused the company of violating its founding agreement. (Musk\u2019s lead attorney said he will appeal the decision.)<\/p>\n However, OpenAI still faces lawsuits over everything from alleged copyright infringement<\/a> to ChatGPT\u2019s alleged role in user suicides<\/a>. Earlier this month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman<\/a>, claiming that OpenAI and Altman \u201cignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at great risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians.\u201d<\/p>\n Altman recently apologized to the community of Tumbler Ridge, Canada<\/a> after a mass shooting; he acknowledged that OpenAI failed to alert law enforcement after the company flagged and banned the suspected shooter\u2019s ChatGPT account.<\/p>\n The company announced this week that it has filed confidentially to go public<\/a>.<\/p>\n This post has been updated with a statement from an OpenAI spokesperson.<\/p>\n