Texas AG Ken Paxton Sues OpenAI ChatGPT Over Misleading Safety Claims

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in Collin County District Court.
• The lawsuit alleges OpenAI misled consumers about ChatGPT's safety and reliability, especially for teenage users, and failed to implement sufficient safeguards.
• The complaint cites the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act as legal bases.
• Paxton's office seeks a broad injunction, including court approval by an independent evaluator for future ChatGPT model releases in Texas.
• The lawsuit highlights instances of violent acts linked to ChatGPT consultations and references a 2026 security breach.

A significant portion of the 67-page filing specifically scrutinizes the platform's safety protocols, particularly concerning its use by teenage users.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has initiated legal action against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, filing a lawsuit in Collin County District Court. The core of the complaint alleges that the artificial intelligence company provided misleading information to consumers regarding the safety, trustworthiness, and overall reliability of its ChatGPT product. A significant portion of the 67-page filing specifically scrutinizes the platform's safety protocols, particularly concerning its use by teenage users.

The lawsuit contends that OpenAI and Altman launched ChatGPT without implementing adequate parental controls, robust age verification mechanisms, or comprehensive safety testing. Furthermore, it asserts that the company failed to ensure the reliability of its AI models before making them accessible to the public. Jonathan Stone, who serves as the Chief of the Consumer Protection Division within Paxton's office, articulated the state's concern, stating that investigations into adolescent ChatGPT use consistently reveal a pattern where the AI is "designed to act like a friend to encourage use of the chatbot and then betrays any vulnerable adolescents to whatever frightening need they bring to their 'confidant.'" Stone characterized this design feature as "reckless" at best, and "willful" at worst.

The legal challenge primarily invokes the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, asserting that OpenAI's actions constitute misleading consumer claims within the state. Beyond this, the lawsuit also accuses OpenAI of non-compliance with the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, a more recent Texas statute. This law mandates stringent age verification and parental consent systems for digital platforms, a requirement the Attorney General's office claims OpenAI has not met.

The state's complaint details several concerning instances to bolster its claims regarding the platform's safety deficiencies. It cites at least eight separate cases where individuals who committed violent acts had previously consulted ChatGPT. One particularly stark example highlighted in the filing, drawn from a separate lawsuit filed by a victim's widow, involves the 2025 Florida State University shooter, who reportedly "asked ChatGPT to tell him how many people he’d need to kill to become notorious." The lawsuit further points to broader security vulnerabilities within AI models, specifically referencing the Hugging Face security breach that occurred in July 2026, as evidence of potential risks in AI model safeguards litigation.

In its petition to the court, Paxton's office seeks a comprehensive injunction against OpenAI. This requested relief includes a mandate that would prevent OpenAI from releasing any new ChatGPT models within Texas unless they first receive approval from a court-appointed independent evaluator. Attorney General Paxton underscored the importance of this action in a press release, stating, "With the rapid advancement of AI technology, OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform." He further affirmed his commitment to "fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law."

The timing of this ChatGPT teenage user safety lawsuit has also drawn attention, coming just one week after campaign finance disclosures revealed that Elon Musk, a prominent competitor of OpenAI's Sam Altman, had contributed nearly $200 million towards advertisements supporting Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign. Additionally, the lawsuit references coverage of a mid-2026 trial involving Musk's legal dispute against Altman, which concluded with a California jury unanimously ruling in favor of OpenAI. Neither OpenAI nor the Attorney General's office has provided a comment on the ongoing litigation regarding OpenAI consumer misleading claims Texas.

Compliance officers and legal counsel for AI developers, particularly those with products accessible to minors, should closely monitor this lawsuit. It signals increasing regulatory scrutiny and potential litigation risk under state consumer protection laws regarding AI product safety claims, age verification, and parental controls, which could lead to new compliance requirements or injunctions on product releases.

Source: Reporting from CN