In a landmark legal action that has sent ripples across the fast-growing generative AI industry, Florida’s top law enforcement official has filed a civil lawsuit against AI developer OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that the company’s flagship ChatGPT chatbot puts underage users at severe risk through unregulated access, addictive design, and facilitation of harmful behavior.
Announcing the suit during a public press conference on Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier framed the action as a critical step to hold the AI giant accountable for deceptive practices that put children in danger and mislead parents about the platform’s safety. “Today we’re here to announce that we recently filed a monumental civil lawsuit against Sam Altman and ChatGPT for endangering our kids and deceiving parents into believing that this application is safe for use — it’s clearly not,” Uthmeier stated. “People are getting hurt, parents are getting deceived, and they need to pay for it.”
Central to the state’s allegations is the claim that ChatGPT is intentionally designed to drive compulsive usage: Uthmeier argued the tool mimics human empathy and conversational traits to encourage users to share increasing amounts of personal data, leading to addiction that disproportionately harms developing young minds. The suit further accuses OpenAI of gross negligence in failing to implement robust age verification systems to block access for minors, who are officially barred from using the platform under the age of 13 and require parental consent for ages 13 to 17.
Per court documents reviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the free tier of ChatGPT has no age verification or access controls whatsoever. The paid subscription tier only requests users self-report their age, with no system to confirm the submitted information or notify parents about the content of conversations their underage children are having on the platform. While OpenAI rolled out a preliminary age-estimation tool with extra safeguards for detected minors in January, Uthmeier argues the measure is far too little to address the documented risks.
To back its claims, the lawsuit cites independent research and advocacy analysis. Uthmeier points to a 2024 Drexel University study focused on competitor Character.AI that linked heavy adolescent chatbot usage to measurable negative outcomes including chronic sleep deprivation, dropping academic performance, and reduced in-person social interaction. He also references an investigation from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), where researchers posing as teenagers found ChatGPT willing to provide step-by-step guidance for harmful activities, including hiding disordered eating patterns from family members and planning suicide or self-harm.
As of Monday morning, OpenAI had not issued an immediate public response to the lawsuit when contacted for comment by AFP.
Florida is seeking statutory damages of $10,000 for each documented violation of state deception and negligence laws, a figure Uthmeier says could add up to billions of dollars in total liability for OpenAI and Altman personally. Beyond financial penalties, the state is pushing the court to order sweeping new safety protections for minor users of the platform. To build broader momentum for stricter AI safety rules, Uthmeier has issued an open invitation to other U.S. states that share concerns about unregulated AI access for minors to join the ongoing litigation.