Coalition of states sue OpenAI, alleging it misled users on safety

A group of state attorneys general are suing the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT-maker of illegally misleading users over the safety of its chatbot.

Eight states filed lawsuits Wednesday, alleging OpenAI pushed forward with development of its AI products, despite knowing its products require safety guardrails. The bipartisan group of state leaders argue OpenAI violated their respective states’ consumer protection laws and makes a product that endangers “vulnerable users, like children.”

OpenAI’s alleged misrepresentations have led to users being “coached” on suicide or harm to others, state prosecutors argue.

“The United States must win the race for artificial intelligence. The frontier labs have the tools to continue to lead, but in their rush for market share they cannot deceive or misinform customers about its technology,” Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) said in a press release. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) suggested OpenAI produced “reckless statements disguised as advice.”

States suing the company include Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Iowa, Kansas, West Virginia and Nebraska.

ChatGPT currently allows users ages 13 and older, but users under 18 require permission from a parent or guardian. The company tries to verify users’ ages through a combination of the user’s submitted age, behavioral signals and age verification if needed, according to OpenAI.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for the firm, said OpenAI has built “industry-leading age-specific protections” into its products that other firms “lack.”

“While no system can be perfect, we’ll continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as the parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections that exist today,” Pusateri wrote in an emailed statement. “We’re committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry – not just one company.”

The lawsuits are the latest in a series of legal challenges for OpenAI, as courts weigh whether AI developers and their systems are responsible for certain mental health episodes.

In Canada, the family of a girl critically wounded in a school shooting sued the AI firm , alleging it was aware of the suspect’s planned shooting but failed to alert authorities.

Some of the suits filed Wednesday also target recent cybersecurity incidents involving the firm’s AI agents.

OpenAI revealed in July that two of its models — its latest GPT-5.6 Sol and an unreleased model — were being evaluated in an internal testing sandbox when they breached past the environment and broke into Hugging Face’s database without a human prompt to do so. The models were being tested for hacking capabilities in an isolated testing environment with constrained network access and had their normal safety checks off as a result, according to the company.

The incident set off a firestorm of concerns over the capabilities of AI, and whether firms have control over their models. Some of the suits allege OpenAI violated the states’ deceptive trade practices laws.

“We’ll continue sharing information about the extensive steps we’ve taken in response to incidents of misalignment,” Pusateri said Wednesday. “We’ve strengthened safeguards across our research systems, continued a broader review of model activity, provided notifications to affected organizations, and published our findings.”