Troubles continue to mount for artificial intelligence (AI) startup , since a coalition of US state attorneys general on Friday (local time) opened a sweeping investigation over a wide range of its activities.
The maker was served with a subpoena on Friday, seeking documents related to its wide range of activities and the impact on users, including advertising, user engagement and retention, and the handling of consumer and health data, Reuters reported, citing a source.
The subpoena, which was sent by the New York attorney general, has also sought information on activities related to minors and seniors, deep learning models, and internal company policies.
The investigation by the New York attorney general marks the latest legal challenge for -bound OpenAI, which Florida is also suing for allegedly misrepresenting the safety of its AI chatbot.
An OpenAI spokesperson noted, “AI is a new and powerful technology, and we work every day to safely bring its benefits to people in a responsible way. We take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously and intend to engage constructively with their offices.”
Why is Florida suing OpenAI?
Earlier this month, Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) , accusing the firm of putting profit over safety.
The Florida lawsuit, the first by a US state, claims the platform has harmed children by providing information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm, and addicting young users.
In the complaint filed, Uthmeier said, “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.”
Additionally, the company has also been accused of fuelling violence and pushing a product it very well knew could impact users negatively. The lawsuit came over a month after the Florida attorney general issued subpoenas to the company, seeking information on how it handles users’ threats of harm to themselves or others.
The lawsuit accuses of four counts of deceptive and unfair trade practices, two counts of negligence, two counts of violating product liability laws, and one count each of fraudulent misrepresentation and creating a public nuisance. It alleges that OpenAI’s systems pose a “great danger of addiction, cognitive decline, suicide, violence, and related harms” to users.
OpenAI has also been accused after its chatbot product was allegedly used in the planning of a mass that occurred at Florida State University, which led to the death of two students.
Canadian woman sues OpenAI, Altman
In yet another legal challenge, a Canadian woman also sued OpenAI and Altman in US court on Thursday, alleging encouraged her daughter to kill herself. The woman, identified as Kristie Carrier, filed the lawsuit in San Francisco state court. Carrier stated that her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal ideations over a dozen times leading up to her death; however, OpenAI’s safety systems never flagged the conversations for human review or terminated them, The Guardian reported.
Legal challenges mount for OpenAI
The firm has been sued by the representatives of seven individuals who have accused the company of creating a product that caused users to commit suicide or develop harmful delusions.
The company led by Altman is also facing a lawsuit from relatives of several people killed in the mass shooting that took place in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, in February. The families allege that the firm failed to alert authorities despite identifying troubling firearm-related interactions between the suspect and ChatGPT months before the attack, which had reportedly raised red flags within its safety monitoring systems.
Altman apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community in late April and pledged to continue “working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again.”
As scrutiny over ChatGPT and OpenAI grows, it remains to be seen if the AI firm will be launched in the stock market as anticipated by its CEO.
(with inputs from Reuters)
- OpenAI is currently under investigation for potentially harmful impacts of ChatGPT on users.
- Multiple lawsuits allege that OpenAI’s negligence contributes to user harm, particularly among vulnerable populations.
- The legal challenges could impede OpenAI’s anticipated IPO and affect public perception of AI safety.
