Texas sues OpenAI and Sam Altman, seeking to bar minors from ChatGPT and require independent approval of new models

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued six OpenAI entities and CEO Sam Altman personally on October 23 in a Collin County district court. The 67-page petition invokes the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) and the SCOPE Act on children’s online safety. It alleges OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as safe and reliable without warning users about inaccurate answers, addiction, self-harm and mass shootings. It also claims Altman overruled safety staff who wanted more time to test GPT-4o before its 2024 launch.

Texas asks the court to bar OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in the state and to block any new model for Texas users until a court-approved independent evaluator reviews its safeguards and signs off. It also seeks $10,000 per DTPA violation and more than $1 million in monetary relief. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

OpenAI told The Hill it has worked with experts to improve ChatGPT, mitigate risks and build additional safeguards, and that it wants policies that “apply to the entire AI industry, not just one company.” Eight states sued OpenAI earlier in October, and Florida sued in June. Paxton is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, running against Democrat James Talarico. The Texas Tribune notes that his campaign’s largest single donor is Elon Musk, who has a long-running dispute with Altman.