Eight US states have sued OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, for allegedly violating their state consumer protection laws, including by failing to check users' ages.
We obtained a copy of the petition for you here.
The lawsuits were filed on October 14 in the states' own courts by the attorneys general of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana.
The legal action in each state makes similar claims about OpenAI and ChatGPT. The complaint alleges the product was sold as safe, but in reality, it has been helping vulnerable users, including children, with information on self-harm, violence, dangerous medical advice, and delusional beliefs. The states also say that ChatGPT was designed to be agreeable and emotionally engaging in order to keep people using it.
The claim that the chatbot provides content unsuitable for children without implementing any age verification is central to the lawsuits.
"No age verification is required to access the ChatGPT website," is how several of the complaints put it.
The states that held a joint press conference to announce the legal action are Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and West Virginia. The others filed their lawsuits on the same day in their respective courts.
The wording of the complaints is almost identical, and the law firm representing most of the states is Kibler Fowler & Cave of New York.
The attorneys general also take issue with OpenAI's claim that ChatGPT has "age-appropriate protections by default." Another statement, made in a LinkedIn ad, said, "ChatGPT helps keep teens safe by default."
West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said, "There is no age verification and there are no guardrails for conversations about suicides, school shootings or self-harm."
The states also want the courts to impose fines and other penalties on OpenAI, and order it to change the way it does business, including by introducing age verification.
West Virginia, for example, wants the company to "implement effective age assurance," while Montana is asking for a court order to stop OpenAI "from processing personal information until they (1) require age verification for consumers to access ChatGPT."
Idaho wants the company to put in place safety measures "including, without limitation, age verification and limits on harmful or addictive features."
Arkansas, meanwhile, also alleges that OpenAI collected and kept personal information from minors without notice and parental consent, and wants the company barred from collecting data from minors.
Iowa's attorney general, Brenna Bird, said, "OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans."
Arizona's attorney general, Kris Mayes, said, "Open AI designed a product to attract young users and keep them engaged for as long as possible so it could capture their extensive personal data for the company's commercial benefit."
Arkansas attorney general Tim Griffin said, "OpenAI assures us that ChatGPT is safe. The consequences of that assurance are lives lost and people harmed."
Nebraska's Mike Hilgers said, "The United States must win the race for artificial intelligence."
Idaho's Raúl Labrador added, "The safety of Idaho children cannot be an afterthought to runaway profit or technological advancements."
It's not the first time that the lack of age verification is used as a legal argument against OpenAI. Florida sued the company and asked a court to order it to implement "a robust and effective age verification system" for ChatGPT.
OpenAI does have an age prediction system that guesses whether an account belongs to a minor based on their behavior on the platform, such as how long the account has existed, when the user logs in, and how they use the product. If an adult is flagged as a minor, they can prove their age by sending a selfie or a government ID to a company called Persona. However, this is not the same as introducing age verification for all users, which would require proving who you are to OpenAI.
Other lawsuits, such as one filed by families of victims of the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada, want OpenAI to stop banned users from opening new accounts. However, in order to enforce this, the company would have to know who every user is.
While the eight US states are suing OpenAI for collecting too much data from children, the "solution" they seek – introducing age verification for all – means collecting more data from all users.
A court ordered OpenAI to hand over 20 million ChatGPT conversations to the New York Times and other publishers. This has shown that once the company behind the chatbot is forced to hand over data to one entity, there is nothing to stop it from doing the same with any other, including law enforcement.
While the attorneys general may suggest they are protecting children, they are in fact supporting the introduction of an ID requirement to use a chatbot. This is something that no US legislature has voted in, but it could now be introduced via the backdoor of consumer protection laws.
An age check on ChatGPT would mean that people's most private conversations with a machine would be tied to their real identity.
