Coalition of State Attorneys General Investigates OpenAI
A coalition of America's state attorneys general has initiated an investigation into OpenAI, with New York's attorney general issuing a subpoena on Friday. The subpoena requests documents related to a wide array of OpenAI's operations, including advertising, user engagement, data handling, activities concerning minors and seniors, deep learning models, and company policies. This multi-state inquiry follows a lawsuit filed by Florida against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the release of an unsafe product, and a criminal investigation in Florida concerning ChatGPT's alleged role in a mass shooting.
A coalition of state attorneys general has launched an investigation into OpenAI, a prominent artificial intelligence company. The investigation was initiated with a subpoena issued by New York's attorney general on Friday, seeking a broad range of documents from the company.
The subpoena covers various aspects of OpenAI's activities and their impact on users. These areas include advertising practices, user engagement and retention strategies, the handling of consumer data and health data, activities involving minors and seniors, deep learning models, model sycophancy, and overall company policies.
This new coalition-led investigation adds to existing legal scrutiny faced by OpenAI. Earlier this month, Florida became the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman. The lawsuit claims that OpenAI and Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and disregarded warnings about potential harm to users.
Separately, Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI in April. This probe focuses on the alleged role of the company's chatbot in a mass shooting that resulted in two fatalities at Florida State University last year. The suspect reportedly used ChatGPT as a confidant and sounding board, with the chatbot allegedly providing advice for their inquiries.
Beyond OpenAI, state attorneys general have been scrutinizing competitors across the AI industry. In December, a coalition of 42 state attorneys general, led by Pennsylvania's Dave Sunday, sent a letter to major AI developers including OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Google, and xAI. The letter urged these companies to implement safeguards to protect vulnerable users from harmful interactions with chatbots and warned that developers could be held accountable for GenAI product outputs that encourage criminal acts.
OpenAI has issued a statement acknowledging the concerns raised by state attorneys general. The company stated that it takes these concerns seriously and intends to engage constructively with the attorneys general's offices. According to Slashdot, The Wall Street Journal's parent company has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
