Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday filed a new complaint against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging the ChatGPT maker knowingly put profits over user safety to win the artificial intelligence “arms race.”The lawsuit seeks to hold Altman liable for allegedly harming Floridians by failing to implement safeguards in ChatGPT and asks the company to comply with Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Monday’s filing marks the first time a state has brought a lawsuit against Altman and his company. Uthmeier said the state is looking to hold Altman accountable for “the harm he has caused Floridians through his reckless and willful conduct as founder and CEO of OpenAI, including his utter disregard for the risk to human life caused by his firms’ conduct,” according to filings reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
The complaint opens with a photo of a ChatGPT safety disclosure blog post that claims the company works with experts to regularly update systems to reduce risks to users. Below the photo, the complaint immediately alleges, “Not so.”
Uthmeier alleges Altman and OpenAI misrepresented what their systems were capable of, leading to a “litany of harms.”
“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 filing said.
