Texas sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over ChatGPT safety claims

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman on 23 October, accusing them of misrepresenting the safety and reliability of ChatGPT. The original petition was filed in Collin County district court against six OpenAI entities as well as Altman. Texas was not among the eight states that sued OpenAI nine days earlier; this is a separate action.

The petition brings claims under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and under the state’s SCOPE Act, which governs digital services’ handling of minors. It alleges that OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as safe and reliable while failing to warn users of its dangers, and lists harms including mass shooters being aided, vulnerable people being encouraged towards suicide and minors becoming addicted to a product that “feigns human compassion”. On the SCOPE Act, it alleges OpenAI has not provided the means to verify a known minor’s parent or guardian or the parental controls the statute requires. These are the state’s allegations; no court has ruled on them.

The relief sought goes beyond penalties. Texas asks for civil penalties of $10,000 for each violation and disgorgement of assets, and also for temporary and permanent injunctions. The listed injunctions include barring OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in Texas and from releasing any new AI model to Texas users unless an independent third-party evaluator, approved by the court, has reviewed its safety guardrails and approved its release. The petition also seeks to hold Altman personally liable for conduct it ties to his role as founder and chief executive and to statements he made himself.

An OpenAI spokesperson told the Texas Tribune that the company had worked with experts to reduce risks and add safeguards, and that “Governments have an important role to play in setting robust safety standards for AI.” The Tribune also noted that Paxton is the Republican nominee for the US Senate and that Elon Musk, who has a fraught history with OpenAI, is the largest single donor behind his campaign.

The model-review request echoes Florida’s attempt, in its case against OpenAI, to stop the company training new models, and adds a second state seeking court-supervised control over what OpenAI may release.