Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on June 1 in the Circuit Court of Highlands County, making Florida the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI over harm caused by ChatGPT. The 83-page complaint includes 10 counts: violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (4 counts), product liability (2 counts), negligence (2 counts), fraudulent misrepresentation (1 count), and public nuisance (1 count), naming five OpenAI corporate entities and Altman personally as defendants. Florida seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, and a court order prohibiting ChatGPT from collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent. Uthmeier said at a press conference: „Sam Altman and ChatGPT chose the AI arms race over children’s safety. They chose profit over public safety.“
The core allegation is that OpenAI knowingly marketed ChatGPT as a safe and reliable product, including for children, while ignoring internal and external safety warnings, driven by „an unending desire to win the AI arms race and amass immense wealth.“ Specific incidents cited include: the April 2025 shooting at Florida State University, where the suspect allegedly used ChatGPT to plan the attack, with related chats under investigation; and the April 2026 murders of two University of South Florida graduate students. The complaint also accuses ChatGPT of enticing vulnerable people to suicide and of making minors „addicted to a tool that mimics human care while collecting data without parental supervision.“ Regarding Altman’s personal liability, the complaint references his November 2023 firing for not being „candid in his communications with the board“ and notes that the subsequent internal independent investigation never produced a written report. OpenAI stated that it has established „industry-leading protections and policies“ for minors and previously denied responsibility for the Florida shooting.
Bloomberg | TechCrunch | NPR