Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI Monday alleging that the ChatGPT parent company put out a product that harmed users.
The lawsuit seeks to hold the tech giant’s CEO Sam Altman liable for allegedly harming Floridians by releasing an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that put profit over safety. The lawsuit claims that ChatGPT has aided mass shooters, harmed critical thinking skills, and drove people to suicide, according to CNBC.
While Florida is the first state in the U.S. to file a lawsuit against the company other states have recently filed lawsuits against other big tech companies.
The company is also getting sued by seven families of the victims of the February mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Canada for alleging that the attacker used ChatGPT to plan the attack, according to CNBC. The company is also facing several wrongful death lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT led to suicide or harmful delusions, according to the outlet. OpenAI has also been involved in lawsuits with Elon Musk.
“The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI’s market value at unacceptable costs,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit is accusing OpenAI of two counts of negligence and two counts of violating product liability laws, the Washington Examiner reported.
The suit also claims that OpenAI caused, “a great danger of addiction, cognitive decline, suicide, violence, and related harms to users s in Florida from their designing, marketing, selling, promoting, and/or distributing ChatGPT.”
“Losing a child is the most devastating tragedy that can happen to a family and we know that no words can come close to addressing the pain of such a loss. AI is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection, which is why we have put in place industry leading protections and policies,” an OpenAI spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “In 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 use of AI.”
“We know pointing to this work will not bring a child back, but we’re committed to getting this right,” the spokesperson continued.
Uthmeier’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
“Because of Defendants’ misrepresentations about ChatGPT and their careless introduction of ChatGPT to Florida and the world, mass shooters have been aided and abetted in deadly rampages, vulnerable people have been encouraged into suicide, professionals have suffered public humiliation, users have lost critical thinking skills, and minors have become addicted to a tool that feigns human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight,” the complaint added.
Uthmeier opened a separate investigation last April into OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to determine whether they are responsible for the mass shooting at Florida State University for providing advice to the gunman, according to CNBC. Uthmeier has highlighted the shooting at Florida State University and the killing of two students at the University of South Florida as instances where ChatGPT has helped aide in violence, according to NBC.
“We have safeguards in place to help people, especially teens, when conversations turn sensitive. We continue improving ChatGPT’s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support,” OpenAI states on its website.
Uthmeier believes that Altman is putting the “AI race over the safety and security of our kids,” according to Politico.
“People are getting hurt; parents are getting deceived and they need to pay for it,” he said Monday in an event in West Palm Beach, the outlet reported.
The lawsuit is seeking to force OpenAI to comply with obligations under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and Uthemier says he believes other states will follow suit, according to CNBC.
“Where there is clear evidence of attempts to engage in violence and kill others, these people know how to analyze data better than anybody in the world- the authorities sure as heck better be notified,” Uthemier said according to Politico.
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