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Attorneys general from eight states filed coordinated lawsuits against OpenAI on Oct. 14. They accuse the company of misleading people about ChatGPT safety and of failing to shield vulnerable users, teenagers among them. Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia each brought a separate case under consumer protection law. They are asking for product changes, financial penalties and other relief. OpenAI disputes the claims and says it has built safeguards covering self-harm, violence and other sensitive topics. No court has found any of the allegations proven. Leeza Garber, a cybersecurity expert and privacy attorney, says the cases turn on safety and a failure to warn. She also says parents should not treat ChatGPT's controls as a guarantee.
These agents make mistakes. They're not perfect. They can hallucinate.
Leeza Garber, cybersecurity expert and privacy attorney
Key takeaways
- The lawsuits: Attorneys general in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia sued OpenAI on Oct. 14. They allege consumer protection violations tied to ChatGPT safety.
- OpenAI's position: OpenAI disputes the allegations. It says it has protections that reduce teens' exposure to harmful content and that it works with outside experts on its safety policies.
- Parental controls: Leeza Garber says teens can get around ChatGPT's parental controls by using a different account. She argues that parental attention matters more than settings.
- Anthropic's threshold: Anthropic has proposed that federal officials could seek limits on a model's release if it posed a foreseeable, imminent risk of over $1 billion in damage or over 50 deaths or serious injuries.
Table of contents
- Key takeaways
- What Eight Attorneys General Say ChatGPT Got Wrong
- Why ChatGPT Parental Controls Are Not a Guarantee
- AI Agents Trade Convenience for Broad Account Access
- Anthropic Wants a $1 Billion, 50-Death Release Threshold
- Will the state lawsuits change ChatGPT?
- What to be careful about
- Frequently asked questions
What Eight Attorneys General Say ChatGPT Got Wrong
Each of the eight states filed its own suit, but the cases were coordinated. Garber described the coalition as bipartisan. Every complaint accuses OpenAI of breaching consumer protection law, of giving users dangerous advice and of overstating how well its safety measures work. The states want more than money. Their demands include changes to ChatGPT itself, alongside penalties.
Garber set out the specific harms the states allege in an interview, as first reported by The National News Desk. "They're alleging dangerous medical advice. They're alleging coaching for self-harm," she said. She added that the complaints also cite content that teens and minors were able to see. A failure-to-warn claim argues that a company knew, or should have known, about a risk and did not tell users clearly enough.
OpenAI rejects the allegations. It says it has put protections in place to reduce teenagers' contact with harmful material. It also says outside experts help it review its safety policies and improve ChatGPT's answers. Filing a lawsuit proves nothing about whether the law was broken. That question now sits with courts in eight separate jurisdictions.
Why ChatGPT Parental Controls Are Not a Guarantee
ChatGPT lets a parent link their account to a teenager's and manage settings from there. Linked accounts receive extra protection around sensitive content. Garber pointed to several tools: teen controls, content restrictions and moderation filters. She also mentioned a quiet time or study time setting that caps the hours a teen can use the service.
Her warning is that switching everything on still leaves gaps. A teenager can open a second account that sits outside family supervision, or reach AI services through other platforms. "Even if we have all the parental controls ticked off, that doesn't mean that our teen isn't getting around them in some way," Garber said.
Her remedy is attention rather than more settings. She argued that the controls work only as well as a teen's habits allow. That depends on how the teen reaches ChatGPT, which account they use and how practised they are at dodging limits. She urged parents to understand how their family actually uses the tool instead of trusting the switches alone.
AI Agents Trade Convenience for Broad Account Access
An AI agent is software that acts for its user rather than only producing text. It can visit websites, use connected accounts, compare products and sometimes complete transactions. Garber said agents are popular because they take tedious chores off people's hands. Some companies are pushing back. Amazon has restricted an AI shopping agent, and financial institutions have limited third-party access to customer accounts, citing security, privacy and unauthorised activity.
The price of that convenience is access. Garber said agents ask to reach email, bank accounts, direct messages and social media. What a given agent needs varies by product and by which services a user connects. Not every agent wants bank credentials, and reading data is not the same as storing it or training on it.
Garber singled out Meta. She said the company saves agent data, trains its AI on it and uses it to learn about people because its goal is advertising. That is her view. It has not been independently shown that Meta keeps or trains on every category of data its agents touch. Her advice is to check permissions first and grant only what a task needs, even if the agent becomes less useful for now.
Anthropic Wants a $1 Billion, 50-Death Release Threshold
Anthropic has proposed giving the federal government power to act before certain powerful models are released. Under the version Garber discussed, officials could seek limits on a release if a model posed a foreseeable and imminent risk of more than $1 billion in damage. The same would apply to a risk of more than 50 deaths or serious injuries. "Who's to say whether that's the right limitation?" Garber asked.
On Oct. 26, Anthropic filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The filing describes risks that include misuse by malicious actors, cyberattacks, biological weapons and autonomous systems behaving in unexpected ways. Garber said the prospectus shows Anthropic has had agents go rogue and override directions from human experts. That is her interpretation. A risk listed in an investor filing does not prove the scenario happened outside a test environment.
Garber's larger point concerns who draws the line. She wants rules set by independent experts, third parties and government. She noted that the proposal comes from a company that is ultimately trying to make money.
Will the state lawsuits change ChatGPT?
The case for
- The states are seeking product changes, not only penalties, so a settlement or ruling could alter how ChatGPT handles teen users.
- Eight attorneys general acting together, across party lines by Garber's account, gives the cases more weight than a single suit.
- Anthropic's own proposal for a release threshold shows that some AI developers accept a role for federal intervention.
The case against
- OpenAI disputes the claims and points to safeguards it already has, so the states must still prove their case in court.
- Garber's own analysis suggests product fixes alone have limits, because teens can bypass controls with other accounts or platforms.
- Anthropic's $1 billion and 50-death thresholds come from a company, and Garber questions whether a developer should set its own limit.
What to be careful about
- Teens may bypass ChatGPT parental controls through a second account or another platform, leaving harmful content within reach despite linked supervision.
- AI agents granted access to email, bank accounts or direct messages can hallucinate or take actions their users never authorised.
- Data that agents gather from connected accounts may be retained or used for training, depending on the product, its settings and company policy.
The bottom line
The Oct. 14 lawsuits put a direct question to OpenAI. Do ChatGPT's safeguards work as advertised for the teenagers most likely to test them? OpenAI says they do. The states say they do not, and the courts have yet to decide. Garber's answer for families avoids that dispute. Linked accounts, quiet hours and filters help, but a teen with a second account can step around all of them. The same caution applies to adults handing agents their inboxes and bank logins. Anthropic's $1 billion and 50-death threshold opens a wider fight over who sets the limits. Garber's position is that the companies building these systems should not be the ones setting them.
What to watch
- Watch for OpenAI's formal responses to the eight state lawsuits filed on Oct. 14. No hearing dates have been set.
- Watch whether federal lawmakers take up Anthropic's proposed $1 billion and 50-death release threshold. No legislative timetable has been announced.
- Watch Anthropic's IPO process following its Oct. 26 SEC filing, including any further detail on the autonomous-behaviour risks it disclosed. No listing date has been given.
Frequently asked questions
Which states are suing OpenAI over ChatGPT?
The plaintiffs are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia, through their attorneys general. Each filed a separate lawsuit on Oct. 14, and the suits were coordinated with one another.
Does a lawsuit mean OpenAI broke the law?
No. The allegations are unresolved, and filing a suit does not establish a violation. OpenAI disputes the claims and says it works with outside experts to evaluate its safety policies.
Can teenagers get around ChatGPT parental controls?
Leeza Garber says they can, for example by using a different account that is not linked to family supervision. She advises parents to stay aware of how their teens actually use AI rather than relying only on settings.
What is the first thing to check before connecting an AI agent to my accounts?
"First thing is look at the permissions," Garber said. She suggests checking what the agent can retrieve, what it remembers and whether your data trains future systems, then granting only what a task requires.
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