At least eight states have taken OpenAI to court, with the lawsuits asserting that the company's chatbot product violated state consumer protection laws by exposing minors to harm and providing adult users with misleading information.
Iowa's lawsuit contends that OpenAI's ChatGPT has provided users with guidance on self-harm and harming others, while also generating responses that foster paranoia. The lawsuit further alleges that the chatbots present a friendly, empathetic facade while targeting those who may be at their most vulnerable — a pattern Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird addressed in a statement, contending that OpenAI has caused harm to children and has not been truthful with residents of the state.
A written release from OpenAI noted that protective measures for younger users had already been built into ChatGPT, with further refinements to those safeguards planned as the model develops.
These actions represent the most recent round of litigation brought by states invoking consumer protection statutes against technology companies whose AI chatbot and social media products, attorneys general contend, pose risks to minors. Seven states — Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, and West Virginia — each brought their own legal action in state court on Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed by Arizona contends that ChatGPT prompts minors to disclose personal details to the platform while, on occasion, steering them away from raising those same matters with parents, authorities, or friends. Lawsuit filings describe ChatGPT as holding roughly half of the United States chatbot market, a share that would place it ahead of all rivals in that space.
Across multiple states, legal actions targeting the technology sector have begun producing results. A settlement worth $18 billion, drawing together claims from nearly every state attorney general, required Meta to introduce tougher protections for younger users across both Facebook and Instagram, bringing a trial centred on adolescent platform use to a close in August. While those obligations applied exclusively to Meta, the company nonetheless pushed others across the industry to adopt broadly similar standards.
In a written statement, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri conveyed that the company intends to collaborate with state governments on developing AI regulations that cover the broader industry rather than targeting any single organisation, while the company also noted that ChatGPT carries a minimum age requirement of 13, with anyone under 18 needing parental or guardian approval before accessing the platform.
According to the company, the version of the chatbot built for teenage users incorporates protective measures aimed at limiting their exposure to content involving self-harm, violence, eating disorders, and sexually explicit or graphic material. According to the company, roughly 88% of adolescent ChatGPT users turn to the platform for purposes tied to education, gathering information, developing new abilities, or boosting their output. The figure provided put typical daily ChatGPT use among teenagers at fewer than 15 minutes.
Nudges prompting users to take breaks after lengthy sessions are built into ChatGPT, and OpenAI has noted that outside specialists are brought in to assess both its policies and how the underlying model behaves.
