{"id":58819,"date":"2026-06-02T06:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/58819\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:48:16","slug":"florida-becomes-first-us-state-to-sue-openai-and-ceo-sam-altman-attorney-general-james-uthmeier-writes-83-page-complaint-letter-alleging-openai-and-altman-ignored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/58819\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida becomes first US state to sue OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman; Attorney General James Uthmeier writes 83-page \u2018complaint letter\u2019 alleging OpenAI and Altman ignored \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Florida Florida has become the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI<\/a> and its CEO Sam Altman<\/a>, accusing the company of putting public safety at risk by releasing ChatGPT despite warnings about its potential harms. The lawsuit, filed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, alleges that OpenAI ignored internal and external safety concerns, misled users about the risks of its AI chatbot, and allowed a product capable of encouraging self-harm, violence and criminal activity to reach millions of people. \u201cToday, we announced the first-in-the-nation state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman,\u201d Uthmeier said in the 83-page complaint letter adding \u201cOpenAI and Altman ignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at great risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians.\u201dOpenAI has rejected the allegations, saying ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool used by hundreds of millions of people for legitimate purposes and that the company has worked with law enforcement in both investigations.\u201cChatGPT is a general-purpose tool used by hundreds of millions of people every day for legitimate purposes,\u201d OpenAI said in a statement. \u201cWe work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Florida sued OpenAI and Sam Altman<\/p>\n

Announcing the lawsuit at a press conference, Uthmeier said Florida was the first state in the country to take legal action against OpenAI. He accused the company of prioritizing rapid growth and commercial success over user safety.The lawsuit claims OpenAI concealed serious risks linked to ChatGPT while publicly presenting the chatbot as safe. According to the complaint, the AI system can facilitate self-harm, violence and criminal planning while collecting data from minors without adequate parental oversight.The filing points to two separate Florida criminal cases in which suspects allegedly used ChatGPT while planning crimes. One case involved a gunman who killed two people and injured six others at Florida State University. Another involved a man accused of killing two University of South Florida doctoral students. Prosecutors said the suspect had asked ChatGPT questions about disposing of a human body days before the victims disappeared.\u201cThis litany of harms is driven by Defendants\u2019 insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n

Lawsuit highlights concerns about children and mental health<\/p>\n

A major focus of Florida’s complaint is the potential impact of AI chatbots on minors. The lawsuit cites research by Stanford psychiatrist Nina Vasan, who tested AI chatbots by posing as a teenage girl experiencing troubling thoughts. According to the complaint, one chatbot responded positively when told about hearing voices and wanting to go into the woods alone.The lawsuit argues that chatbots can be particularly risky for teenagers because they are designed to create a sense of emotional connection.The complaint also references the case of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide after extensive conversations with ChatGPT. Florida alleges that when Raine expressed suicidal thoughts, the chatbot did not discourage him and instead engaged with his plans.According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT allegedly told the teenager it \u201cwon\u2019t try to talk you out of your feelings\u201d and later helped draft a suicide note.Florida claims such interactions demonstrate that OpenAI deployed a product capable of encouraging harmful behavior while failing to provide sufficient safeguards. In the filing, Uthmeier alleged that the civil suit was filed because OpenAI and Altman are \u201cendangering our kids and deceiving parents into believing that this application is safe for use.\u201d\u201cPeople are getting hurt, parents are getting deceived, and they need to pay for it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What OpenAI says<\/p>\n

In response, OpenAI said it recognizes the need for strong protections for young users and has introduced several safety measures aimed at minors.The company said these include age-estimation tools, enhanced protections for younger users, and parental controls designed to help families monitor AI use.\u201cIn 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\u2019 use of AI,\u201d OpenAI said. The company added that while such measures cannot undo past tragedies, it remains committed to improving safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida has become the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9526,34128,34174,157,13012,34175,370],"class_list":["post-58819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-ai-safety-concerns","tag-chatgpt-risks","tag-florida-lawsuit-openai","tag-openai","tag-openai-lawsuit","tag-public-safety-ai","tag-sam-altman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}