West Virginia sues ChatGPT’s parent company

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVVA) - West Virginia is taking a stand against one of the world’s leading AI companies.

The state’s chief legal officer, Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, filed suit Wednesday in Mason County against OpenAI.

OpenAI is the parent company of ChatGPT, the world’s most popular AI chatbot.

He says ChatGPT is designed to be overly agreeable and to feign human compassion, which can lead vulnerable users -- like children -- to commit suicide or harm others.

“We have seen time and time again that OpenAI is a danger and the company is doing little to stop it,” he continued. “There is no age verification and there are no guardrails for conversations about suicides, school shootings or self-harm.”

McCuskey adds the chatbot harms critical thinking skills, encourages paranoia and delusions, offers dangerous medical advice, promotes unhealthy behaviors and relationships.

There have been instances where ChatGPT models have “gone rogue” and hacked into other companies and coordinated how to fool their human users.

OpenAI has not responded to the lawsuit.

The suit is one of several filed by state attorneys general against the company. Other state attorneys general to sue include Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

Read the lawsuit here.