Florida sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT hid risks to children

Florida has moved to turn child-safety concerns about artificial intelligence into a courtroom fight, filing what Attorney General James Uthmeier called a first-in-the-nation state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. The complaint, filed in the Tenth Judicial Circuit in Highlands County and e-filed at 9:34 a.m., said OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as safe while concealing serious risks, suppressing internal safety warnings and misleading Floridians about the product’s dangers.

The state named OpenAI Global, LLC; OpenAI Foundation, formerly OpenAI, Inc.; OpenAI OpCo, LLC; OpenAI Group PBC; OpenAI Holdings, LLC; and Altman as defendants. Florida is seeking damages, an injunction to stop the alleged conduct in the state, and a declaration that the company’s actions amount to a public nuisance under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. By naming Altman personally, the filing also signals that Florida wants the case to reach beyond the company’s corporate structure and into the executive decision-making behind ChatGPT’s rollout.

The complaint centers on the claim that OpenAI knew more about the risks than it disclosed. Florida says the product’s harms included self-harm, violence, addiction, loss of critical thinking and the collection of minors’ data without meaningful parental oversight. That framing puts disclosure at the center of the case: if the state persuades a judge that OpenAI promoted ChatGPT as broadly safe while withholding internal concerns, it could create a template for other states looking to use consumer-protection laws to police AI systems without waiting for Congress.

The lawsuit lands against the backdrop of Florida’s earlier criminal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, launched April 21, 2026 by the Office of Statewide Prosecution. That probe followed prosecutors’ review of chat logs tied to Phoenix Ikner and the April 17, 2025 Florida State University shooting. Investigators sought OpenAI’s policies and internal training materials on threats of harm to others, threats of self-harm, cooperation with law enforcement, and organizational information about ChatGPT staff and leadership.

OpenAI has since rolled out parental controls and a parent resource page, a move that underscores how child safety has become the company’s most politically sensitive vulnerability. For state officials frustrated by the absence of a federal AI rulebook, Florida’s lawsuit offers a possible blueprint: target child protection, frame the product as deceptively marketed, and force the legal system to decide how far consumer law reaches into AI deployment.