Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was joined in Des Moines by her counterparts from Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia and Arkansas Wednesday to announce a lawsuit against one of the leaders in the use of Artificial Intelligence.
“Today we are announcing a lawsuit against OpenAI for lying to parents and hurting our kids,” she says. Bird says OpenAItold Iowans and their users all across the country that ChatGPT is safe when it is not. She quoted OpenAI’s CEO.
“He said he believes that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefit of this technology. We refuse to accept that. He is wrong,” Bird says. “We will not just accept that any big tech company can make money by hurting Iowa’s kids and use them as lab rats in a race to be the first or the biggest or to have the most users.”
Kansas Attorney General Chris Kobach says state attorney’s general come together from time to time to for actions against big companies like the opioids and tobacco lawsuits. “Usually you don’t see us getting together to announce the lawsuit unless it’s really, really important. This is one of those lawsuits that’s really, really important,” Kobach says.
Kobach says this is a platform that is trained to gain the trust of the user. “This is especially dangerous when you’re talking about young users. It’s also important to know that OpenAIhas labeled their chatbot safe for 13 and a half on up. It is obviously not safe for kids of that age. It’s also not safe for the elderly. who can also be very trusting and very dependent upon their devices,” Kobach says.
Attorney General Bird says she is suing to compel OpenAI to comply with the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, to stop from engaging in dangerous activities, and to vindicate the rights of Iowans affected by OpenAI’s “willful, dangerous, reckless, and unlawful conduct. “
