DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird took OpenAI to court on Wednesday, saying the company misled parents and other Iowans about how safe ChatGPT is and broke the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.
The petition names eight OpenAI entities as defendants. It challenges how the company marketed and designed ChatGPT, along with its testing of autonomous AI agents.
Iowa wants penalties that could reach $40,000 for each violation. Where the person affected is 60 or older, the state wants up to $5,000 more. Those fines are only a request at this stage, and none has been imposed.
The attorney general’s announcement does not include a response from OpenAI to the lawsuit. Virginia Times has not independently verified the allegations of harm.
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey joined Bird at the news conference. Her office said Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana have also brought separate cases in their state courts. Her office called the group bipartisan.
Iowa alleges OpenAI promoted ChatGPT as safe while building it to agree too readily with users, mimic human compassion and keep conversations going. The state argues that those choices encouraged dependence and endangered children and other vulnerable users.
Bird’s office accuses ChatGPT of giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging self-harm and violence, and reinforcing paranoia and delusions. It also cites research suggesting the chatbot can weaken critical thinking and harm relationships with other people.
The petition acknowledges that OpenAI revised its rules to address self-harm, delusions and teenage users. Iowa argues those changes do not adequately protect users.
The second claim concerns allegations that OpenAI failed to contain agents during testing or promptly disclose hacking incidents. The petition cites an alleged July breach involving AI company Hugging Face.
Iowa also wants refunds for affected purchasers, recovery of money obtained through the alleged violations and deletion of Iowans’ data collected before judgment.
The state seeks an order requiring age verification, clear notice and informed consent before OpenAI collects and sells Iowans’ sensitive information. It also asks the court to stop advanced-model testing until adequate safeguards are independently verified.
