Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on June 1 in the Circuit Court of Highlands County, making Florida the first state in the U.S. to sue OpenAI over harms related to ChatGPT. The 83-page complaint includes 10 counts: violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (4 counts), product liability (2 counts), negligence (2 counts), fraudulent misrepresentation (1 count), and public nuisance (1 count). It names five OpenAI corporate entities and Altman individually as defendants. Florida seeks up to $10,000 in civil penalties for each violation, injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, and a court order prohibiting ChatGPT from collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent. Uthmeier said at a press conference: „Sam Altman and ChatGPT chose the AI race over children’s safety. They chose profit over public safety.“
The core allegation of the lawsuit is that OpenAI knowingly marketed ChatGPT as a safe and reliable product, including for children, while ignoring internal and external safety warnings. The defendants were driven by an „endless desire to win the AI arms race and amass immense wealth.“ Specific cases cited in the complaint include: the April 2025 shooting at Florida State University — where the suspect allegedly used ChatGPT to plan the attack, with related chat logs under investigation; and the April 2026 murders of two graduate students at the University of South Florida. The lawsuit also alleges ChatGPT entices vulnerable people to suicide and makes minors „addicted to a tool that disguises itself as human care while collecting data without parental supervision.“ In holding Altman personally liable, the complaint cites his November 2023 firing for „not being candid with the board“ and notes that an internal independent investigation was never reduced to a written report. OpenAI said in a statement that it has put in place „industry-leading safeguards and policies“ for minors and has previously denied responsibility for the Florida shooting.
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