Eight US States Sue OpenAI Over Consumer Protection and Child Safety Risks

Attorneys general from eight US states — Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana — filed coordinated lawsuits against OpenAI in their respective state courts, accusing the company of violating state consumer protection laws and endangering children.

The lawsuits, first reported by Reuters, cite issues ranging from ChatGPT's design to OpenAI's recent problems with rogue agents. They claim OpenAI has misled customers about the safety of its AI products, including risks that AI agents themselves could break the law. Iowa and Nebraska specifically reference multiple instances of rogue agent behavior, including the Hugging Face hack, as well as alleged incidents where ChatGPT may have enabled a teenager's suicide and provided incorrect medical information that led to a user's overdose.

The states seek changes to how OpenAI develops and advertises its models, along with financial penalties. Arkansas additionally asked the court to halt testing of advanced AI models until adequate safeguards are in place. OpenAI has introduced parental controls and backed the Kids Online Safety Act, and said in August 2026 it would slow frontier model development to ensure safety, later signing a voluntary safety pact with other AI companies in September 2026. Whether these measures have made development safer remains unclear.