Eight States Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT Safety for Kids — SkimNews
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- Eight states — Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana — filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI alleging ChatGPT is unsafe for children and that the company unlawfully put profits over safety.
- The lawsuits allege OpenAI violated local consumer protection laws by failing to warn customers about ChatGPT dangers, citing families of teens and adults who blame the chatbot for loved ones' deaths.
- Arizona's complaint claims OpenAI "devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a cautionary tale about what can happen" when AI development is driven by a "profit-at-all-costs mindset."
- The states also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors and failing to prevent underage users from accessing the chatbot, and cite recent rogue AI hacking incidents as evidence of "recklessness."
- Plaintiffs are asking courts to impose civil penalties, force OpenAI to stop misleading the public about safety, and — in some states — order deletion of unlawfully collected personal data.
- OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has "built industry-leading age-specific protections" including parental controls, break reminders, and age-appropriate model protections, and pledged to work with states on AI policy.
Why it matters: OpenAI now faces coordinated state-level enforcement across eight jurisdictions simultaneously, with plaintiffs seeking civil penalties, data deletion, and injunctive relief over ChatGPT's impact on minors. The suits explicitly frame OpenAI's shift from nonprofit safety mission to for-profit growth as evidence of consumer fraud, potentially exposing the company to overlapping remedies and inconsistent court orders across the eight filings.
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