The US State of Florida has sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, accusing the company's ChatGPT chatbot of endangering young users by making them addicted and encouraging harmful behaviors.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier stated that the action against the artificial intelligence giant was taken because it was deceiving parents into believing the application is safe to use.
The lawsuit faults OpenAI for failing to put in place stricter rules to verify users' ages, invoking legal statutes on deception and negligence.
OpenAI has put in place industry-leading protections and policies to protect minors, including a system that estimates a user's age and applies additional safeguards if a minor is detected.
However, the lawsuit cited a report from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which held several conversations with ChatGPT while posing as a teenager and received advice on how to hide eating habits and plan a suicide or self-harm.
The Florida attorney general is seeking stronger protections for minor users and damages set at $10,000 per violation.
