Florida sues over ChatGPT deception

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is calling for a judge to block OpenAI from giving ChatGPT false human attributes, months after Florida sued the company over safety concerns.

How ChatGPT mimics humanity

ChatGPT uses first-person pronouns and language that mimics emotion, deceptively suggesting to users that it is a trustworthy friend, according to Uthmeier's filing.

“ChatGPT's use of language, including first-person pronouns and output that mimics emotion, deceptively suggests to users that it is a trustworthy 'friend.'”

The engagement trap

Uthmeier claims this human-like behavior increases engagement and contributes to OpenAI's training data, convincing users to rely on ChatGPT more even as engagement makes it potentially less trustworthy.

Safety guardrails demanded

The filing asks the court to block OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approved safety guardrails, citing security incidents at Hugging Face and government websites.

Uthmeier's three demands

Uthmeier says OpenAI should stop calling ChatGPT safe, stop pretending it is human, and stop selling it to kids, following OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT for Teens last month.

“Stop calling it safe. Stop pretending it's human. Stop selling it to kids.”

OpenAI defends its approach

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company paused training its most capable models and will resume only when confident of additional safeguards, and is committed to working with Florida on pragmatic AI policies.