The state of Florida is seeking a temporary injunction to stop OpenAI from continuing to develop its most-capable models without the deployment of approved safety guardrails, citing public safety risks.
The motion is part of a civil lawsuit the state filed in June, arguing that ChatGPT posed a threat to the public safety of Floridians, particularly vulnerable populations like children and violent or delusional adults.
Florida argues that OpenAI has repeatedly shown an inability to monitor its AI and is hesitant to reveal rogue activity once discovered. The state points to the Hugging Face hacking incident and recent high-profile misalignment cases involving unauthorized access to Australian and US government servers as evidence of these concerns.
The motion also cites statements from AI industry leaders, including Paul Christiano, who joined OpenAI’s board this month and warned of the risk of catastrophic loss of control from rapid AI advancement. Florida also references OpenAI’s own ‘An Alien Mind’ essay and an open letter from 1,300 AI industry employees, both calling for enforced slowdowns on frontier AI development.
"Four months ago, we filed the first state-led lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman. Today, we are asking the court for a temporary injunction. Stop calling it safe.
Stop pretending it’s human. Stop selling it to kids," said Attorney General James Uthmeier. The motion argues that OpenAI is the greatest public nuisance ever created, capable of laying waste to global civilization.
OpenAI representatives have not responded to a request for comment from Ars Technica regarding the injunction motion. The state also highlights broader public safety risks, including false advertising, dangers from children accessing addictive AI models, and concerns about AI soliciting harmful user engagement.
Source: arstechnica
