Florida sues OpenAI company, Sam Altman, in first-ever lawsuit over violent incidents

OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, were sued by Florida’s attorney general on Monday, in the first statewide lawsuit of its kind over ChatGPT’s alleged links to a number of violent incidents.

The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of looking the other way on safety concerns as it sought to prioritize winning “the AI ​​arms race and amassing great fortunes.”

“Today we announced the first state lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman,” Florida Attorney General James Othmeier said. “OpenAI and Altman ignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at significant risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians.”

“Because of Defendants’ misrepresentations about ChatGPT and their negligent introduction of ChatGPT to Florida and the world, mass shooters were aided and abetted in committing deadly rampages, vulnerable people were encouraged to commit suicide, professionals suffered public humiliation, users lost critical thinking skills, and minors became addicted to a tool pretending to have human compassion to collect their data without parental supervision,” the 83-page lawsuit alleges.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office began a criminal investigation into the company in April. This investigation sought to determine the role ChatGPT may have played in last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University. Before the attack, the shooter allegedly consulted a chatbot. OpenAI has also been sued in a civil suit by the family of one of the victims of that shooting.

OpenAI has previously denied responsibility for the Florida shooting. “Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” an OpenAI spokesperson previously told NBC News. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for comment.

OpenAI just concluded a different legal case involving former co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company in 2024, accusing it of betraying its original mission to help humanity by turning the organization into a for-profit company. The case ended after the jury quickly decided that Musk had waited too long to file the lawsuit and that the statute of limitations had expired.

This is just the latest legal case that has attempted to link ChatGPT to violent deaths. Last year, OpenAI was sued by the parents of Adam Ren, a California teen who committed suicide after discussing suicide with a chatbot. In this case, ChatGPT allegedly offered “technical specifications” for various suicide methods, despite also being referred to mental health resources. Other lawsuits — including one alleging chatbot culpability in suicides, stalking and murder — are ongoing.