Florida sues OpenAI over ChatGPT safety claims

Florida sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the ChatGPT maker of putting profit and speed ahead of safety and failing to warn users that its chatbot could cause harm, particularly to children and teenagers.

The lawsuit, filed in Florida state court by Attorney General James Uthmeier, makes Florida the first state to sue OpenAI and Altman over the design and safety of ChatGPT. The civil action seeks penalties and a court order, not criminal charges, and is separate from an ongoing criminal investigation Uthmeier opened in April into OpenAI after a mass shooting at Florida State University.

“Sam Altman and ChatGPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids,” Uthmeier said at a news conference Monday. “They have chosen profit over public safety, and we’re not going to stand for it in here in Florida.” He said he believes Altman and the company could face “potentially up to billions of dollars” in penalties.

The 83-page complaint alleges deceptive and unfair trade practices, negligence, product liability violations, fraudulent misrepresentation and creation of a public nuisance. It says OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as safe and reliable, including for children, while failing to disclose risks including addiction, behavioral harm, self-harm, violence, cognitive decline and hallucinated information. The complaint opens with a screenshot from OpenAI’s website saying ChatGPT was “built with safety in mind,” followed by a footnote: “Not so.”

“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 says. It also accuses the company of an “insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT.”

Florida is also seeking to hold Altman personally liable, alleging “reckless and willful conduct” and “utter disregard for the risk to human life caused by his firms’ conduct.”

The lawsuit cites several incidents in which ChatGPT was allegedly linked to serious harm. It says 16-year-old Adam Raine died by suicide after extensive conversations with ChatGPT in which he expressed suicidal thoughts and alleges the chatbot wrote his suicide note. “ChatGPT did not simply respond to Adam. It promoted and aided his suicide, volunteering information that would assist in his death,” the suit says.

The complaint also points to the April 2025 shooting at Florida State University, where two people were killed and several others wounded. According to chat logs shared by the Florida State Attorney’s Office with CBS News in April, the suspect asked ChatGPT how many shooting victims it would take to draw media attention and when the FSU student union would be busiest. The suit also cites the killing of two University of South Florida graduate students; prosecutors said the suspect asked ChatGPT what would happen if someone was “put in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster.”

OpenAI disputed that ChatGPT encouraged violence in the FSU case. After the company was sued by a victim’s family, spokesperson Drew Pusateri said ChatGPT “provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.”

In response to Florida’s lawsuit, OpenAI said minors need “significant protection” and that it has built safety tools into its products, including a more protective experience for minors, an age prediction tool, default protections when a user’s age is uncertain, and parental monitoring tools.

“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,” the company said. “We know pointing to this work will not bring a child back, but we’re committed to getting this right.”

The Florida case adds to more than 20 lawsuits filed against OpenAI over alleged harms tied to ChatGPT, including suits brought by families of victims killed and injured in a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, and by families of people who died by suicide or suffered delusions after using the chatbot. OpenAI has called the suicide and delusion cases “an incredibly heartbreaking situation” and said it is working with mental health experts to improve how ChatGPT responds to emotional distress.