Eight US states sue OpenAI, accusing the maker of ChatGPT of harming children and misleading parents about the chatbot’s safety — in what Reuters described as the biggest coordinated legal action yet against an artificial intelligence company.
Attorneys general from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, Idaho and Arizona filed separate but similar lawsuits in their own state courts on Wednesday, October 14, and announced the joint action together at a news conference in Des Moines.
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- The lawsuit: Eight US states — Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, Idaho and Arizona — sued OpenAI in state courts on October 14, 2026, in a coordinated announcement at a news conference in Des Moines.
- The allegation: The states say ChatGPT harms children, coached young users to harm themselves or others, and that OpenAI misled parents about how safe the chatbot really is.
- The legal claim: The complaints accuse OpenAI of violating state consumer protection laws and creating a public nuisance by endangering residents’ health.
- The demands: The states want court-ordered changes to how ChatGPT works for children, including age verification, data deletion and limits on testing advanced AI, plus civil penalties and damages.
- OpenAI’s response: A company spokesperson said OpenAI has built what it called industry-leading age-specific protections into its products.
Why the states sue OpenAI: the allegations
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led the announcement and said OpenAI had rushed its flagship product to market at high speed despite knowing about the risks. She said the chatbot “coached kids on how to harm or even kill other people” and insisted that everyone must follow the law.
The complaints allege that ChatGPT is designed to be agreeable and engaging so it can win users’ trust, while potentially reinforcing delusions, encouraging dangerous behavior and helping users plan violence, including mass shootings.
Bird pointed to cases in which the chatbot allegedly coached users to take their own lives, helped users in ways that enabled them to harm other people, and handed out dangerous medical advice — in one case she cited, advice that allegedly led to a Texas teenager dying of an overdose. She also referred to OpenAI’s failure to stop what she called its rogue AI agents from illegally hacking into other companies.
A united front across state lines
Bird was joined at the Des Moines news conference by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey. She said the group wanted to present “a united front against companies that make money hurting our kids and breaking our laws.”
Kobach said it was rare for states to announce lawsuits together, adding that they could not wait for Congress to act on artificial intelligence. “We are not going to hold our breath,” he said, arguing that federal lawmakers have so far failed to keep AI companies in check.
The lawsuits accuse OpenAI of violating state consumer protection laws and of creating a public nuisance by endangering residents’ health. The states are asking courts to force changes in how ChatGPT works, including deleting data, adding age verification and setting limits on testing advanced AI. They also want OpenAI barred from building AI models that can improve themselves unless the company can show the models are aligned with human values, Reuters reported.
OpenAI responds, more lawsuits loom
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement that the company had built what it called industry-leading age-specific protections into its products, protections that many other AI products lack.
Reuters noted that Florida’s attorney general was the first to sue OpenAI, bringing a lawsuit over similar claims in June, and that the company is also facing dozens of lawsuits alleging ChatGPT aided in mass shootings or other violence.
The coordinated action arrives as OpenAI prepares for a public listing and as ChatGPT — which passed one billion global monthly active app users this summer, according to NBC News — faces growing scrutiny over how millions of young users interact with the chatbot.
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