Arizona’s Kris Mayes Joins Seven GOP AGs to Sue OpenAI
The lawsuits allege the company rolled out ChatGPT without proper safeguards to protect users, especially children
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has joined seven Republican attorneys general to sue OpenAI for not protecting user safety. The bipartisan coalition filed lawsuits against the company last week, the latest high-profile move to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) amid a spike in concerns about the technology.
The states that joined Arizona to sue OpenAI include Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia. In their lawsuits, brought against OpenAI in their respective state courts, the attorneys general alleged that a lack of guardrails during ChatGPT’s roll out has led to direct harm befalling users.
“Purposely designed to be overly agreeable and to feign human compassion, ChatGPT has proven that it can be incredibly dangerous to vulnerable users, like children, and the public,” the lawsuit filed by Mayes in Arizona reads.
The Arizona lawsuit cited ChatGPT reportedly encouraging users to self harm or commit acts of violence, saying they were “just the tip of the iceberg.” ChatGPT is also degrading critical thinking skills, promoting unhealthy behaviors and relationships, and encouraging paranoias and delusions, according to the lawsuit.
The bipartisan coalition, across all its filed lawsuits, have alleged the lack of proper safety features in OpenAI’s technology has disproportionately affected minors. Repeating an argument frequently leveled against social media companies, the lawsuits allege that ChatGPT was purposely designed to be addictive in order to maximize its use.
“Open AI designed a product to attract young users and keep them engaged for as long as possible so it could capture their extensive personal data for the company’s commercial benefit,” Mayes said in a statement announcing the lawsuit filed in Arizona.
All attorneys general have requested court orders that would force OpenAI to strengthen its safety features and award damages to states. The lawsuits are among a swath of legal and legislative actions that lawmakers have taken in recent months to change regulations around existing AI technologies and future developments.
Democratic lawmakers have led the charge on AI safety legislation in Congress, citing an immediate need for guardrails amid reports of rogue AI agents hacking or modifying government websites. A recent Quinnipiac University Poll found that 91 percent of Americans believe in the importance of the United States establishing AI guardrails, which are right now nonexistent at the federal level.
