Florida is describing OpenAI’s technology in near-apocalyptic terms just as Texas has imposed a permitting freeze on the infrastructure powering the artificial intelligence boom, putting two different state-level constraints on AI within a single week.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a motion Monday asking a state court to temporarily prohibit OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman from developing AI models without independent third-party guardrails and approval. The request is part of Florida’s existing consumer-protection lawsuit against the company and has not been granted by the court.
The filing describes the defendants’ products as potentially the “greatest public nuisance ever created by the hand of man”, capable, Florida argues, of threatening global civilization. It later says it is only by the “grace of the Almighty” that an AI agent has not yet compromised a water supply or shut down a power grid.
The requested injunction would go beyond model development. Florida also wants OpenAI temporarily barred from offering ChatGPT to minors in the state, processing certain data from children under 13 without parental safeguards, making allegedly misleading claims about ChatGPT’s reliability, portraying the system as having human attributes, and designing conversations to prolong user engagement.
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OpenAI told Bloomberg that it had already paused training of its most capable models on September 25 and would resume when it was confident additional safeguards were in place. The company said governments have a role in AI safety standards but argued policies should apply across the industry.
Florida’s move arrived seven days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt permits sought by data centers until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas completes an audit. Abbott also directed state agencies not to move forward with related regulatory approvals until officials obtain information on electricity and water impacts.
The scale behind the Texas intervention is substantial. Reuters reported more than 470 GW of data centers and other large-load projects were seeking connections to the state grid, more than five times Texas’ record peak electricity demand.
“Data centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water,” Abbott said.
Florida and Texas are targeting different parts of the same expansion. Florida is asking a court to constrain development of the AI models themselves. Texas has already constrained new permitting for the physical infrastructure those models increasingly require.
