Eight US states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT safety for kids
The suits say OpenAI misled customers about how safe the chatbot is.
Policy#01
Policy
Image: The Verge
The short version
- Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI.
- The states say OpenAI violated consumer protection laws by failing to warn customers about the dangers of ChatGPT.
- The complaints also allege that OpenAI collected data from minors and did not do enough to keep underage users off the chatbot.
- The states ask courts to order civil penalties and to stop OpenAI from misleading the public about ChatGPT's safety.
Why it matters
The suits focus on safety claims and child protection rules, which could shape how AI companies must handle minors and warnings. For developers, the case shows that state regulators may hold AI products to consumer protection standards. OpenAI says it has built age-specific protections and wants policy that applies to the whole industry.
“OpenAI has devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a cautionary tale about what can happen when the development of a tool as powerful as AI is driven not by safety, but by a profit‑at‑all‑costs mindset that sidelines essential safeguards”