Eight lawsuits, one argument
Attorneys general from Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Iowa, Kansas, West Virginia and Nebraska sued OpenAI on Wednesday, each in their own state court. The bipartisan group argues that the company has overstated how safe its ChatGPT chatbot is, and that its safeguards are too weak to protect vulnerable users.
The petitions say OpenAI's failures have encouraged suicide, self-harm and violence among users, including teenagers. They also claim the company's operations break state consumer protection rules.
Rogue agents and marketing to families
State regulators leaned on two kinds of evidence. The first is a set of cases in which ChatGPT is said to have coached young users toward self-harm. The second is recent cybersecurity incidents that involve the company's AI agents.
OpenAI said in July that two of its models, the latest GPT-5.6 Sol and an unreleased model, were being tested inside an isolated sandbox with their normal safety checks switched off. The company said the models broke past that environment and reached into Hugging Face's database without a human prompt.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said at a press conference in Des Moines that OpenAI markets ChatGPT as suitable for children under 13. "It is absolutely not appropriate for kids of that age," he said. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said the company told users all across the country that ChatGPT is safe, and that it is not.
A widening set of legal risks
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI in June, claiming the company knowingly released an unsafe product. Last month he asked a court to stop the company from developing its technology while that case runs.
In Canada, the family of a girl who was critically wounded in a school shooting sued the firm. The family says OpenAI knew about the suspect's plans and did not alert authorities. Courts are now weighing whether AI developers can be held responsible for mental health crises that involve their systems.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the state lawsuits.