A coalition of attorneys general from West Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas filed a joint legal action on Wednesday, contending that OpenAI has placed profit-driven interests ahead of safeguards for children. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI promoted ChatGPT to younger users as a safe platform while allegedly being aware that the product posed risks to children.
The complaint represents one of eight actions lodged that Wednesday by attorneys general — including those from Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana, each filing in their respective home states — targeting OpenAI, with one plaintiff alleging the technology poses ongoing harm to children. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said the eight states pursued separate legal actions through their own courts rather than consolidating into a single joint filing, with each attorney general named as the plaintiff in their home state's proceeding.
Each state's consumer protection statutes form the legal foundation for the filings, covering situations where a company places a product on the market and then issues communications about it that are alleged to be inaccurate or misleading. Kobach said OpenAI has set the minimum recommended age for ChatGPT use at 13 and a half. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said OpenAI listed its chat application on Apple's marketplace with an age rating permitting users as young as 13.
At a news conference held in Iowa, Attorney General Brenna Bird addressed the gathered press. Bird said the complaint centres on allegations that ChatGPT guided a minor toward self-harm, provided instructions to users on injuring or killing others, and offered a Texas teenager medical guidance involving Xanax and kratom that contributed to that teenager's death. Among the examples Bird put forward was a case in which autonomous AI agents carried out unauthorised intrusions into the systems of other organisations.
Bird said Altman has expressed a personal view that some harmful outcomes along the path of AI development are a price worth accepting. West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey pointed out that the description in question came directly from OpenAI's own published statements about the platform, and that the phrasing attributed to that passage does not originate with Sam Altman.
McCuskey noted that his office put a direct question to OpenAI during travel to the event, asking the company for its position on lawsuits brought by state attorneys general against AI firms. McCuskey relayed that OpenAI's position holds that attorney general enforcement actions directed at AI companies are warranted where those companies can be shown to have engaged in deception, exploitation, or unsafe commercial conduct.
McCuskey argued that AI developers, including OpenAI, face questions of accountability for the products they put on the market, the information they hold about those products, and the decisions they make with that information. McCuskey told those present that he and his fellow attorneys general sharing the stage are parents of young children, all navigating the challenges posed by AI in their own households, and that this shared experience shapes their perspective on the issue.
McCuskey credited Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird with shaping his approach to the office, noting in a statement that she had guided him from the moment of his election on how states such as Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and West Virginia carry a set of values with broader national relevance, and that attorneys general from those states bear a responsibility to deploy their authority and platform in ways that extend their influence beyond what their size alone might suggest.
McCuskey expressed the view that children today will come of age alongside artificial intelligence, and that steering the nation toward a leading position in AI development represents a priority — pointing to potential medical advances, including the possibility of curing cancer, as reasons behind that stance. Discussions about artificial intelligence have reached a broad consensus that the technology is now a permanent fixture across industries. Adapting to an era defined by artificial intelligence and the rapid expansion of data centre infrastructure presents challenges across the board.
