Florida Becomes First State to Sue OpenAI and Sam Altman Over ChatGPT Safety Failures

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an 83-page civil lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on June 1, 2026, making Florida the first U.S. state to bring a civil suit against an AI company over safety failures in ChatGPT.

The complaint accuses OpenAI of knowingly releasing and aggressively marketing ChatGPT to the public, including to children, while concealing serious risks and suppressing internal safety warnings.

What the Complaint Alleges

The filing in Highlands County Circuit Court makes four primary legal claims against OpenAI and Altman personally:

Unfair and deceptive trade practices under Florida FDUTPA, for misrepresenting ChatGPT as safe while concealing its documented risks.
Gross negligence for ignoring repeated expert warnings about potential to facilitate self-harm and violence.
COPPA violations, alleging ChatGPT collected data from minors without meaningful parental oversight.
Public nuisance, citing ChatGPT role in facilitating behavioral addiction and cognitive harm in teenagers.

The lawsuit also holds CEO Sam Altman personally liable, seeking unspecified damages on behalf of all Floridians.

The FSU Shooting Connection

A central focus of the complaint is ChatGPT alleged role in the April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University, which killed two people and injured seven. Prosecutors say shooter Phoenix Ikner used ChatGPT to plan the attack, asking the chatbot about optimal timing, locations, and weapons to maximize casualties.

Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution had already opened a separate criminal investigation into OpenAI over the FSU shooting in April 2026. The civil suit is filed separately but builds on the same factual record.

Broader Safety Allegations

Beyond the FSU shooting, the complaint cites a pattern of documented harms the attorney general says OpenAI actively suppressed: a California teenager 2025 suicide the family alleged was encouraged by ChatGPT; harmful medical and self-harm information provided to vulnerable users; and attorneys across the country sanctioned by courts after ChatGPT fabricated fake case citations they submitted as real.

Attorney General Uthmeier said: "People are getting hurt, parents are getting deceived and they need to pay for it. They need to pay for it by opening up their checkbook and changing the program to ensure that there are parental controls and that we are not endangering our kids."

What It Means for OpenAI and the Industry

OpenAI, which says ChatGPT is now used by more than 900 million people weekly, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company has previously pointed to updated parental controls it released this year as evidence of its safety commitment.

The Florida suit is the first state-level civil action against OpenAI but is unlikely to be the last. Uthmeier explicitly predicted other states would follow. For the AI industry, the lawsuit represents an escalating regulatory environment where state-level consumer protection laws could impose significant liability on model developers for downstream harms, making the Florida complaint a potential template for AI accountability litigation nationwide.