The state of Florida filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, claiming the company knowingly released and aggressively marketed ChatGPT to the public while concealing serious risks.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said during a news conference that the company suppressed internal safety warnings and deceived users about the true nature and dangers of the product.
“Today, we announced the first-in-the-nation state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman,” Uthmeier said. “OpenAI and Altman ignored internal and external safety warnings, put children at great risk, and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians.”
The civil complaint filed in Florida circuit court references two separate shootings where the alleged gunmen were reported to have asked ChatGPT questions while planning their crimes. OpenAI said in a statement that its models repeatedly encouraged the individuals to seek real-world support, including from mental health professionals. The company also said it has cooperated with law enforcement in both cases.
“ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool used by hundreds of millions of people every day for legitimate purposes,” an OpenAI statement said. “We work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
In April, Uthmeier opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI over whether ChatGPT offered advice to a gunman who killed two people and wounded six others last year at Florida State University. And in another case, prosecutors have said the man charged with killing two University of South Florida doctoral students had asked ChatGPT what would happen if a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster, days before they went missing.
You know what also allowed the Gunman to find information, ask questions about shootings, and shoot people?
The internet. Computers/Cellphones. Other Human Beings.
I get that people are looking for reasons to bash AI, because it’s scary as fuck. However people step back and realize how bad some of the other technologies that we have are. There were mass shootings started long before ChatGPT became a thing.
Oh, and guns. We invented guns. That was a bad idea.
Did you know that it’s also illegal to collaborate on committing a crime? If fellow humans assisted with planning a crime, they’d be arrested too.
Why does an organization get a pass on committing crimes?
That applies equally to everything I said.
If they’re suing OpenAI, they should have already sued and won against the internet service provider, the computer manufacturer, Microsoft/Apple for the software, etc.
Or the gun companies.
Yet all of these companies have a free pass to facilitate crimes. Why should OpenAI be held to a higher standard than the rest of them? This is pure political theater.
There’s a difference between someone using a product not as intended and actively helping to commit a crime.
Internet/guns didn’t say "hey - do a crime, in fact here’s how to do a crime. Ai did/ does.
“had asked ChatGPT what would happen if a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster, days before they went missing.”
Answering that question isn’t a crime, nor is it actively helping them commit a crime.
There are legitimate reasons to ask that question that have nothing to do with committing a crime.
I have asked Google, and AI agents, many questions which if taken in the worst way would constitute a crime but I was doing so just to debate a topic, or look up a law. I know other people do it for writing. Some might do it to look up =criminal cases that they have seen reported in the news.
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