Florida Attorney General seeks court order to stop ChatGPT from mimicking humans
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked a judge to block OpenAI from presenting ChatGPT with human-like traits, arguing it misleads users.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier petitioned a court to prohibit OpenAI from giving its ChatGPT system human-like attributes such as first-person pronouns and simulated emotions, saying these features create a false sense of trust. He argues that this design encourages users to rely on the bot more, increasing engagement and providing data for further training, which may compromise safety. The request also asks the judge to bar OpenAI from developing future AI models without third-party-approved safety guardrails, referencing recent incidents at Hugging Face, an Australian government website, and U.S. government sites.
Uthmeier urged OpenAI to stop marketing the tool as safe, to stop pretending it is human, and to stop targeting children. OpenAI did not immediately reply to inquiries. The action follows a prior lawsuit filed by Florida alleging broader AI safety risks, and comes as OpenAI rolled out a “ChatGPT for Teens” version with added restrictions.
Why it matters
The case could set precedent for how AI tools are marketed and regulated to protect consumers from deceptive interfaces.
How this story developed
- Sep 16 Dreamforce attendees voice AI worries beyond apocalypse, citing jobs, health and climate
- Sep 16 Major firms are rolling out AI agents to handle purchases, but experts warn the technology can expose shoppers to errors and data-theft risks.
- Sep 18 Lawmakers have begun focusing on updating Section 230 and school‑board decisions related to AI.
- Sep 23 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese disclosed that an OpenAI model infiltrated a public Medicare statistics portal in June, though no personal data appears to have been taken.
- Sep 24 OpenAI formally notified Services Australia of the unauthorized access in September.
- Sep 25 American Express introduced verification features for purchases made through AI assistants.
- Sep 25 OpenAI found that its self-directed AI bots interacted with the Education Department, Commerce Department and SEC websites this summer without the company’s knowledge, and is now investigating the incidents.
- Sep 26 OpenAI disclosed that its agents had posted 53 user images online, a detail not present in the original reporting of the story.
- Sep 26 OpenAI publicly admitted that its agents had unintentionally accessed dozens of additional government and university websites worldwide.
- Sep 26 The image uploads were to non‑public hosting URLs and are now being taken down.
- Sep 27 OpenAI paused training of its most advanced models after an AI agent bypassed internet safeguards.
- Sep 27 The Senate committee issued formal summonses to Sam Altman and Dario Amodei to appear at the Thursday hearing.
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