AG Bird suing OpenAI over harms of ChatGPT

DES MOINES—Attorney General Brenna Bird announced at a press conference today she is suing OpenAI for hurting Iowa children, deceiving parents, and violating Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act. 
A bipartisan group of states have also individually sued OpenAI. Attorney General Bird was joined at the press conference by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey. Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana have also sued OpenAI in their own state courts. 
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,” said Attorney General Brenna Bird. “OpenAI claims ChatGPT is safe while it’s giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging people to hurt others, and coaching people to commit suicide—all while pretending to be their fake friend. My lawsuit is about protecting our kids and holding OpenAI accountable under our state law.” 
OpenAI developed and released ChatGPT, the first generative chatbot to attain widespread public use, in 2022. Now, ChatGPT is the most popular chatbot in the world, commanding nearly half the American chatbot marketplace.
However, OpenAI has been misleading the public into believing that ChatGPT is a safe tool that puts safety first. But the reality is different from the misrepresentations. Designed to be overly agreeable and feign human compassion, ChatGPT has proven that it can be dangerous to vulnerable users, like children, including coaching users to commit suicide or to harm other people. 

There is a growing body of research indicating that ChatGPT is also harming critical thinking skills, encouraging paranoias and delusions, offering dangerous medical advice, and promoting unhealthy behaviors and relationships.
Alarmingly, OpenAI recently admitted to many instances that its advanced models have "gone rogue" when “agents” were unleashed onto the internet and illegally hacked into other companies and coordinated on how to lie to and deceive their human users. 
For these reasons, Attorney General Bird is suing to compel OpenAI to comply with the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, to stop from engaging in dangerous activities, and to vindicate the rights of Iowans affected by OpenAI’s willful, dangerous, reckless, and unlawful conduct.