Arkansas AG Tim Griffin files lawsuit against company that owns ChatGPT

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced Wednesday that he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the parent company of platform ChatGPT, over concerns about safety.

Griffin said in a release on Oct. 14 that the suit was filed in response to the company's reported violations of Arkansas law, and that OpenAI had misled Arkansans about the platform's safety.

"Our complaint outlines numerous violations of Arkansas law, but they all boil down to a simple fact: OpenAI represented to Arkansans that ChatGPT was safe, but they knew ChatGPT had significant risks and limitations. They chose to hide that knowledge from consumers," Griffin said.

The lawsuit claims that, among other violations, ChatGPT was used by consumers to get instructions for self-harm and suicide, and that there were reported instances of users being able to bypass the system's safety measures.

“OpenAI assures us that ChatGPT is safe. The consequences of that assurance are lives lost and people harmed," Griffin said.

Griffin said similar lawsuits were filed on Oct. 14 by attorneys general in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Utah.

“We’re in the midst of a technological revolution. Whether you call it artificial intelligence or super intelligence, the bottom line is that things are rapidly changing," Griffin said. "But one thing that has not changed and will not change is Arkansans’ right to receive truthful information about the products and services they use."

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that OpenAI violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Children's and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act; that OpenAI be required to provide "clear and conspicuous" disclosures about the risks of ChatGPT; restitution to affected consumers; civil penalties; and injunction from advanced AI testing until safeguards are in place.