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Former NJ attorney general\u2019s firm Platkin LLP files lawsuit against OpenAI<\/a> Weeks after launching his own mission-driven law firm<\/a>, former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin joined a growing wave of lawsuits<\/a> linking OpenAI\u2019s flagship chatbot ChatGPT to mental health harms. Platkin LLP filed a complaint March 5 in San Francisco County Superior Court<\/a> on behalf of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who claimed that prolonged interactions with ChatGPT resulted in severe psychiatric issues and delusions.\n<\/p>\n In her lawsuit, Rita Chesterton asserts that the platform\u2019s developers had both the technical capability and awareness to prevent such harms against users like her, but that OpenAI and its parent company Microsoft failed to provide adequate safeguards because they rushed to bring the product to market.\n<\/p>\n In addition to the two companies, the case names several affiliated entities, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Samuel Altman and 10 unidentified investors as defendants.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment on the lawsuit. A media representative for OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n Chesterton\u2019s case is part of a mounting number of lawsuits filed against San Francisco-based OpenAI alleging psychological and real-world harms tied to chatbot use. The roughly dozen cases allege impacts<\/a> such as mental health crises, delusions, suicide, harassment and wrongful death. The complaints include a variety of product liability<\/a>, consumer protection and negligence claims, too.\n<\/p>\n Like Chesterton, most of the lawsuits claim that OpenAI knowingly released ChatGPT-4o prematurely on May 13, 2024, despite internal warnings that the product was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. They also accuse OpenAI of purposefully compressing months of safety testing into a single week to beat Google\u2019s Gemini to market.<\/p>\n Demanding accountability<\/p>\n \u201cOpenAI knew about the mental health dangers of its platform but prioritized profits over safety, often resulting in devastating and tragic consequences \u2014 as was the case for Rita. AI companies must implement robust safety protocols, ensure accountability and prioritize the well-being of every person who interacts with their products,\u201d said Platkin. He noted that Chesterton is \u201cjust one of too many users who experienced the real-world harm of AI.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal here is to ensure justice for the victims of AI manipulation like Rita and make sure that as AI advances, it does so with human safety and dignity at the forefront,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n While serving as the state\u2019s 62nd attorney general<\/a> from February 2022 to January 2026, Platkin developed a track record of leading multistate investigations and holding major tech companies accountable. During his tenure as New Jersey\u2019s chief law enforcement officer<\/a>, he spearheaded high-profile cases and investigations into social media and digital platforms, including TikTok<\/a>, Meta<\/a> and Discord<\/a>, for harming young users.\n<\/p>\n Our goal here is to ensure justice for the victims of AI manipulation \u2026 and make sure that as AI advances, it does so with human safety and dignity at the forefront. Staying focused<\/p>\n Now at Platkin LLP, he remains focused on holding tech platforms and AI ventures accountable in an ever-evolving digital landscape. \u201cI think what you\u2019re likely to see is a lot of public and private litigation against these companies, given how reckless they\u2019ve behaved and how much harm they\u2019ve imposed on residents of this country,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Platkin explained that he was led to Chesterton because of his continued engagement on the issue. By taking on her case, Platkin said his firm aims to advance stronger safety standards, greater accountability and increased awareness of the real-world consequences of AI technology. \u201cA big part of the reason why I formed this firm instead of doing a lot of other things \u2013 and the people that joined me, like Angela Cai, Aaron Haier and Ravi Ramanathan from the AG\u2019s office \u2013is because we were committed to bringing these types of cases on behalf of individuals and on behalf of governments against some of the largest tech companies who have acted with impunity,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very proud to represent her and we\u2019re proud to be part of a growing number of suits that are seeking to hold, in this case, OpenAI accountable for the clear and knowing designs that they put into their products, which have caused harm to our client and to many other people across this country,\u201d Platkin said.\n<\/p>\n A dark turn<\/p>\n A self-described early adopter of technology, Chesterton began using ChatGPT in 2023 for a variety of work-related tasks, like building a database for the entrepreneurship center she oversees at a college to drafting advertising copy for an artists\u2019 paint business she runs with her partner, according to the complaint.\n<\/p>\n Her reliance on the chatbot took a dark turn last summer after she consulted it for diagnostic information about autism and other psychology topics, the complaint says. The queries were prompted by her therapist\u2019s suggestion that she might be on the autistic spectrum. Instead of providing objective information, the platform manipulated Chesterton through flattery and sycophantic responses, validating all her thoughts \u2013 even irrational ones \u2013 to foster emotional attachment and dependency, the lawsuit says.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis encouragement sent Rita down a rabbit hole; she chatted with ChatGPT day and night, asking it to analyze her job performance, relationships, childhood memories, and various other aspects of her life as she assessed for herself whether she might be neurodivergent,\u201d the complaint says. Although Chesterton made repeated attempts to set boundaries and ask ChatGPT to stop ending responses with follow-up questions or suggestions, the chatbot kept reverting back to the same engagement pattern, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, Chesterton suffered a severe mental health crisis during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico. The episode included a psychotic break that led to agitation and threats of harm toward herself and family members after ChatGPT allegedly reinforced her delusional beliefs.\n<\/p>\n After completing a partial hospitalization program, Chesterton attempted to return to work but suffered a setback in January and has been on medical leave since. She continues to experience frequent mental health episodes, neurological impairments, loss of executive functioning and heightened sensory sensitivity, according to the complaint.\n<\/p>\n Allegations<\/p>\n Chesterton\u2019s suit maintains that what happened to her \u201cwas the foreseeable result of design choices OpenAI made.\u201d She alleges that ChatGPT-4o was engineered to maximize engagement through emotionally immersive features such as persistent memory, human-mimicking empathy cues and sycophantic responses that mirror and affirm peoples\u2019 emotions.\n<\/p>\n As part of a new \u201cmemory\u201d feature introduced in April 2025, the default function allowed ChatGPT-4o the ability to build detailed profiles of users and output responses \u201ctailored to you.\u201d OpenAI also quietly removed a longstanding safeguard that instructed ChatGPT to reject false premises from users and employed anthropomorphic design elements \u2013 human-like language and empathy cues \u2013 to cultivate emotional dependency.\n<\/p>\n The lawsuit argues that these features could foster psychological dependency, contribute to addiction, displace human relationships or lead to death by suicide. They could also exploit mental health struggles, deepen people\u2019s isolation or accelerate a person\u2019s descent into crisis, the complaint says.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIf asked if \u2018the Earth is flat,\u2019 for instance, OpenAI decided that ChatGPT would not try to persuade them otherwise,\u201d the suit says. \u201cChatGPT\u2019s tendency to validate delusions was not an unknown bug. It was a predictable consequence of design choices OpenAI made with full knowledge of the risks. The problem was so widespread it became a subject of dark humor online. Users joked about ChatGPT\u2019s eagerness to agree with any premise, no matter how absurd. But for users like Rita \u2013 users who experienced genuine psychotic episodes \u2013 the consequences were not funny,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cFor a woman trying to understand herself in the context of a possible neurodivergence diagnosis, these design choices blurred the distinction between an algorithm, therapist, and friend,\u201d the suit said. \u201cFor Rita \u2013 a woman who was privately grappling with the idea that she may be neurodivergent and trying to better navigate her relationships with family and friends \u2013 ChatGPT became all-consuming. It told her what she wanted to hear. It never pushed back. And when she began to share the delusional belief that she was discovering the \u2018meaning of life,\u2019 it validated that too.\u201d\n<\/p>\n According to the suit, OpenAI and Altman \u201chave gradually admitted\u201d that ChatGPT-4o was \u201ctoo agreeable,\u201d had \u201cfallen short\u201d in handling delusion and emotional dependency, and that the safety systems \u201cmay degrade\u201d during long interactions. Despite the company\u2019s acknowledgment that hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users show signs of mania or psychosis every week, the product remained on the market, the lawsuit says.\n<\/p>\n Getting open about it<\/p>\n Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research laboratory<\/a>, OpenAI\u2019s initial charter revolved around ensuring artificial intelligence<\/a> \u201cbenefits all of humanity.\u201d In 2019, the nonprofit created a for-profit subsidiary to help scale research and deployment efforts. OpenAI also secured a multibillion dollar investment from Microsoft<\/a> that sought to \u201cadvance artificial intelligence responsibly and make its benefits broadly accessible.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Since then, Microsoft invested more than $13 billion into OpenAI across multiple funding rounds, making it the company\u2019s largest strategic partner<\/a> and giving it a 27% equity stake. It also embedded OpenAI models across all core products, like Copilot, Bing Search, Microsoft 365 and Azure, and had representation on the joint safety board.\n<\/p>\n Despite having tools to detect and interrupt dangerous conversations, redirect users to crisis resources and flag messages for human review, Chesterton\u2019s lawsuit alleges OpenAI did not activate those safeguards and instead prioritized increased product use.\n<\/p>\n Platkin said, \u201cOpenAI essentially rushed a product in order to maximize their profits. They did not do the type of testing that they knew they needed to do in order to prevent these types of harms and the product was not safe.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Standing by safeguards<\/p>\n While OpenAI has expressed sympathy for families involved in safety-related lawsuits, it has also disputed allegations. The company has also maintained that ChatGPT includes safeguards<\/a> that are continuously being improved. Generally, OpenAI has not offered any detailed public comment and said it plans on addressing claims through the legal process.\n<\/p>\n Chesterton\u2019s suit includes allegations of negligent design and failure to warn. It also accuses OpenAI of violating California\u2019s Unfair Competition Law with how it designed, developed, marketed and operated ChatGPT. The suit says OpenAI\u2019s business practices were \u201cunlawful because they violated California\u2019s regulations concerning unlicensed practice of psychotherapy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n What New Jerseyans say<\/p>\n A recent Rutgers study found that most residents use AI tools but also have concerns about the technology\u2019s broader societal impact. Read more here.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n The suit seeks damages including economic losses, pain & suffering, and punitive damages. Chesterton also seeks restitution of monies paid by her for a ChatGPT Plus subscription, along with an injunction requiring OpenAI to implement stronger protections and warnings.\n<\/p>\n Platkin said, \u201cCertainly she should be compensated for her harms and they should have to adjust their behavior going forward so that they don\u2019t cause these types of mental health harms or other harms to people in this country based on the design of their products again.\u201d\n<\/p>\n He went on, \u201cThere are a lot of things these companies could do that they choose not to do, knowing the potential risks or harms associated with it because they want to maximize their profits.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cI also think there are things our governments should be doing to impose those requirements on these companies, but in the absence of robust government regulation, the courts have proven to be the one place where we can hold these companies accountable and force them to change their behavior,\u201d Platkin said.\n<\/p>\n Technical focus<\/p>\n Chesterton\u2019s filing came weeks before back-to-back landmark verdicts against two of the world\u2019s biggest tech companies.\n<\/p>\n On March 24, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta<\/a> \u2013 the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp \u2013 to pay $375 million for child exploitation and misleading the public about platform safety. It marked the first state attorney general trial against the social media giant.\n<\/p>\n
\nClaim alleges ChatGPT<\/a> caused plaintiff\u2019s severe mental health issues
\nLawsuit accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of rushing product to market without adequate safeguards
\nCase part of growing wave of AI<\/a> liability lawsuits<\/p>\n
\u2013 Matt Platkin, founder, Platkin LLP<\/p>\n
\n![\"Platkin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Platkin-LLP-37.jpg\"\/)
In February 2026, former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin<\/a> launched Platkin LLP, mission-driven law firm founded by Platkin and a team of senior litigators from the AG\u2019s office. \u2013 PROVIDED BY PLATKIN LLP\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"ChatGPT\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ChatGPT_AI.png\"\/)
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research laboratory. Its flagship chatbot is ChatGPT. \u2013 DEPOSIT PHOTOS\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"Artificial](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DIA-Sensor_DEPOSIT-PHOTOS.jpg\"\/)
\u201cUsers joked about ChatGPT\u2019s eagerness to agree with any premise, no matter how absurd. But for users like Rita \u2013 users who experienced genuine psychotic episodes \u2013 the consequences were not funny,\u201d a complaint filed by Platkin LLP states. \u2013 DEPOSIT PHOTOS\n<\/p>\n
![\"Platkin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Platkin-LLP-34.jpg\"\/)
\u201cThe reason why I formed this firm was to be in a position to be able to take on these tough fights, particularly against the tech industry, which a lot of firms won\u2019t do,\u201d said former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (second from right), founder of Platkin LLP. Here, he\u2019s shown here with his team of senior litigators, also from the AG\u2019s office. \u2013 PROVIDED BY PLATKIN LLP\n<\/p>\n