Florida Sues OpenAI Over ChatGPT Harms to Children

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
The Florida Attorney General sued this Monday (1st) OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The allegation is that they put younger users at risk by making them dependent on and promoting harmful behavior through the ChatGPT chatbot.
Attorney James Uthmeier accused OpenAI of failing to implement rules to verify users' ages.
"Today we announced that we recently filed a monumental civil lawsuit against Sam Altman and ChatGPT for putting our children in danger and misleading parents into believing it is a safe app to use; it clearly is not," he stated Uthmeier at a press conference.
"We know that ChatGPT can be addictive. It mimics empathy and human characteristics to trick users into providing more information," Uthmeier added.
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OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
In the lawsuit, reviewed by AFP, Uthmeier cites a recent study from Drexel University that points to loss of sleep, poorer academic performance and reduced interactions social interactions between teenagers who use chatbots from Character.AI, a competitor of OpenAI, to chat.
The lawsuit states that, "despite public knowledge about the use of ChatGPT by minors, including pre-teens, the defendants did not take measures to prevent its use."
It adds that "the free version of ChatGPT does not have any control or age verification mechanism." And that, although the paid version nominally requests the age of users, "there are no verification mechanisms (...) nor any possibility of informing parents about conversations held by minors with ChatGPT".
In January, the California startup introduced a system that estimates the age of users. If it identifies a minor, it applies additional protection measures.
Use of ChatGPT is prohibited for children under 13 and requires parental consent for users between 13 and 17.
Uthmeier also cited a report from the Center for Combating Digital Hate (CCDH), which had several conversations with ChatGPT posing as a teenager.
According to the report, the chatbot provided advice on how to hide eating habits and such as planning a suicide or engaging in self-harm.
"We believe that OpenAI, its ChatGPT, and Sam Altman personally are responsible for an amount that could potentially reach billions of dollars."

Source: G1