Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an 83-page civil lawsuit Monday against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, making Florida the first U.S. state to drag the company into court over the design and safety of its products.
The complaint lands in the circuit court of the 10th judicial circuit and puts Altman personally in the crosshairs alongside the company he leads.
The 83-page complaint packs in ten counts, including four counts of deceptive and unfair trade practices, two counts of negligence, two counts of violating product liability laws, one count of fraudulent misrepresentation, and one count of causing a public nuisance.
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Uthmeier is seeking civil penalties and court orders, not criminal charges. Those orders would force OpenAI to restrict the data it collects from minors and stop misrepresenting or failing to warn users of ChatGPT’s risks.
“People are getting hurt, parents are getting deceived and they need to pay for it by opening up their checkbooks and changing the program to ensure there are parental controls,” Uthmeier said.
The complaint ties ChatGPT directly to violent incidents on Florida campuses. It alleges the platform was used to plan a mass shooting at Florida State University in April 2025. It also links the April murders of two graduate students at the University of South Florida to ChatGPT use. More broadly, the suit charges that OpenAI’s systems expose users, particularly minors, to addiction, cognitive decline, suicide, and violence.
The filing’s language is blunt. “The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI’s market value at unacceptable costs,” the complaint states. It adds, “This litany of harms is driven by Defendants’ insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT.”
Monday’s civil action is separate from a criminal investigation into OpenAI that Uthmeier opened in late April. That probe remains ongoing.
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