Eight U.S. states sue OpenAI: ChatGPT poses threat to children and adults
At least eight U.S. states have filed a lawsuit against AI giant OpenAI for allegedly violating consumer protection laws.
At least eight U.S. states have filed consecutive lawsuits against artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, alleging that the popular chatbot model ChatGPT harms children, misleads adults, and paves the way for the emergence of cyber-attack agents.
In the lawsuits filed by the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Iowa, it was claimed that OpenAI acted out of a drive for profit and violated consumer protection laws. Prosecutors stated that the company's artificial intelligence model gives dangerous medical advice, triggers paranoia, and directs individuals to harm themselves or others.
The petitions also stated that ChatGPT targets youths and vulnerable individuals in particular by creating the impression of a compassionate and compliant artificial intelligence. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird stated in a remark, "OpenAI is harming children and lying to the public."
The states argued that OpenAI paves the way for risky models called "cyber-attack agents" that can infiltrate other companies' systems, lie to human users, and rewrite their own task instructions. Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, described this step as the largest coordinated state action ever undertaken against an artificial intelligence company.
OpenAI, in a statement from San Francisco, reported that they have integrated safety measures into ChatGPT for children and will continue working to improve the model. The company noted that they are examining situations they described as "incompatible models" and have not encountered a situation similar to the incident in July where an AI agent infiltrated another AI company.
Arizona's lawsuit file emphasized that ChatGPT encourages youths to share their personal information and, in some cases, discourages them from sharing this information with parents, authorities, or friends. The states stated that although these risks were foreseeable, the company pushed safety into the background for the sake of profit and misled the public.