Texas Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman Over ChatGPT Safety, Seeking to Bar Minors and Require Court-Approved Review of New Models
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in Collin County, alleging that ChatGPT's safety marketing violated the state's consumer-protection law and that OpenAI broke a Texas law on children's data. The petition asks the court to bar OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in Texas and to block new model releases there unless a court-approved evaluator signs off. OpenAI said it wants AI rules that apply to the whole industry, not just one company. The claims are allegations and have not been tested in court.
The remedy in Texas's new lawsuit against OpenAI matters more than its penalty figure: the state wants a court-approved gatekeeper over any new model OpenAI releases to Texans. On Friday, October 23, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, saying the company marketed ChatGPT as safe while failing to protect Texans, including children. Every claim in the petition is an allegation that OpenAI can contest.
What Texas is alleging
The petition, filed in district court in Collin County, names six OpenAI entities, including OpenAI Global, LLC, OpenAI Group PBC and the OpenAI Foundation, along with Altman. It brings two counts. The first alleges violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). The second alleges violations of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, which the petition says also count as DTPA violations.
In its press release, Paxton's office said that, without adequate safeguards, large language models such as ChatGPT can output inaccurate or harmful information without that risk being disclosed to users. "With the rapid advancement of AI technology, OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform," Paxton said. "I will fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law."
What Texas wants the court to order
The petition asks the court to temporarily and permanently stop OpenAI from a list of practices. Among them:
- "Offering ChatGPT to minors in Texas."
- "Releasing any new artificial intelligence model to Texas users unless an independent third-party evaluator, approved by the Court, has reviewed its safety guardrails and approved its release."
- Offering a product without adequate age verification or adequate safety testing.
It also asks for civil penalties of $10,000 for each DTPA violation, disgorgement of assets, and costs and fees. Texas has asked for a jury trial.
OpenAI's response and the political backdrop
"Governments have an important role to play in setting robust safety standards for AI, and we're committed to working with Texas and other states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry — not just one company," an OpenAI spokesperson told The Texas Tribune.
The Tribune reported that Paxton has sued or settled with Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox under the state's consumer-protection laws in the last year. It also reported that Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before a falling-out with Altman and later started xAI, is the largest single donor behind Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign, at nearly $200 million. The Tribune noted that Musk's chatbot Grok has faced criticism over deepfake images, that California's attorney general has opened an investigation into it, and that Texas has taken no action against Musk.
The state is represented by outside counsel, including Ashley Keller of Keller Postman and Tony Buzbee of The Buzbee Law Firm, according to the petition and the Tribune.
Limits
- The petition's factual claims are Texas's allegations. No court has ruled on them, and OpenAI has not yet filed a response in court that we could find.
- The $10,000 figure is a per-violation maximum the petition seeks; it does not tell us what any final penalty might be.
- We did not independently check the Tribune's figure for Musk's donations. The Tribune discloses that Meta has been one of its financial supporters.