AG McCuskey files lawsuit over OpenAI’s ChatGPT safety claims
CHARLESTON, WV (WVNS) - A lawsuit against OpenAI was filed by Attorney General JB McCuskey, who claimed it was deceitful with West Virginians about the safety of ChatGPT.
According to a press release from the West Virginia's Attorney General's Office, along with Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, Attorney General McCuskey revealed that the lawsuit had been filed at a press conference. The lawsuit claims that OpenAI endangered children, deceived parents, and violated Consumer Protection laws in the Mountain State. Similarly, OpenAI was also sued by a bipartisan coalition of Arizona, Idaho and Montana in their own state courts.
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We must do all we can to protect kids. We have seen time and time again that OpenAI is a danger and the company is doing little to stop it. There is no age verification and there are no guardrails for conversations about suicides, school shootings or self-harm. We do not allow bad businesses to operate in West Virginia and break our laws and will not allow OpenAI to continue hurting our kids.
Attorney General McCuskey (R-WV)
The release included that ChatGPT, which is the world's most popular chatbot, was developed and released by OpenAI in 2022. It is the first generative chatbot to be used widely by the public and now commands almost half the chatbot marketplace in America.
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The lawsuit claims that OpenAI deceived the public into believing that safety is an upmost priority for ChatGPT. Instead, according to McCuskey's claims, ChatGPT can be detrimental to vulnerable users, such as kids, since it can be overly agreeable and mimic human compassion, as well as coach users to harm themselves or hurt others, the release noted.
"Alarmingly, OpenAI recently admitted to many instances that its advanced models have 'gone rogue' when 'agents' were unleashed onto the internet and illegally hacked into other companies and coordinated on how to lie to and deceive their human users," the release stated.
Due to the abovementioned reasons, OpenAI is being sued by McCuskey to make OpenAI adhere to West Virginias' consumer protection laws and refrain from conduct that is dangerous and illegal, according to the release.
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