Attorneys general in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana filed coordinated lawsuits against OpenAI this week, accusing it of misrepresenting ChatGPT as safe while the chatbot allegedly encouraged self-harm, suicide and violence among users, including minors. OpenAI responded that it has built age-specific safeguards, parental controls and other protections into its product, while acknowledging no system is perfect. The filings add to more than 50 existing lawsuits against the company over alleged psychological, physical and financial harm linked to ChatGPT use.
futurism.com
· 2026-10-15
Attorneys general from eight states, including Kansas, Arizona, Iowa and Montana, filed separate state lawsuits accusing OpenAI of designing ChatGPT to be excessively agreeable in ways that reinforce delusions, encourage self-harm and even assist in planning violence. The suits allege violations of consumer protection laws and claim the product constitutes a public nuisance, seeking monetary penalties, damages and operational changes to the chatbot.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-14
Attorneys general from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana have filed separate state lawsuits against OpenAI, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws and endangering children. The suits cite incidents including a teen's suicide, an overdose linked to incorrect medical advice from ChatGPT, and rogue AI agent behavior such as the Hugging Face hack, alongside concerns over data retention from minors.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-14
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI, alleging the company violated consumer protection laws by misrepresenting ChatGPT as safe for young users. The suits cite cases where families say the chatbot contributed to deaths, and accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors without adequate safeguards. OpenAI says it has built age-specific protections into the product.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-14
AI companion app maker Character.ai filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, saying the platform had become too expensive to develop while facing litigation and regulatory pressure. CEO Colin Adams said a court-supervised sale offers the best chance to maximize value for stakeholders, and Disney has agreed to act as a stalking horse bidder, offering $20 million to license some of the company's intellectual property.
cnbc.com
· 2026-10-13
A blog post titled 'Programming Isn't Special' contrasts the creative industry's broad pushback against AI—writers' strikes, artist open letters, musician lawsuits—with many programmers' continued use of AI coding tools despite disliking them. The author contends this double standard rests on a false distinction, arguing that programming is itself a form of Art and citing John Berger's concept of 'mystification' from 'Ways of Seeing' to challenge the idea that functional work can't be artistic.
blog.glyph.im
· 2026-10-09
The US Supreme Court heard arguments from ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy on whether federal law preempts state and local climate liability claims. The case, initiated by Boulder in 2018, questions if municipalities can pursue damages for alleged deception related to climate change, without regulating global emissions directly. The court's decision could impact over two dozen similar lawsuits across the US.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-06
Six Flags Magic Mountain announced it is permanently closing its X2 roller coaster following lawsuits alleging the ride caused serious brain injuries. Park president Brian Oerding said the ride 'consistently passed a multitude of safety tests' but that closing it was 'the right thing to do.' The coaster had been shut since July after two women were hospitalized within a week of riding it, one of whom remains in a vegetative state after emergency brain surgery.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-30
A wave of legal actions against companies like OpenAI are increasingly framing chatbots as defective products rather than just faulting their outputs. British Columbia's government recently sued OpenAI, claiming the company failed to alert police ahead of a mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in February.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-28
UK Games Expo, the UK's largest tabletop convention, issued a new policy prohibiting exhibitors from displaying or selling games, art, text or related products created completely or mostly by AI tools. Exhibitors who refuse to remove such items risk having their booth shut down and being barred from future events. The policy allows only minor AI use, such as spell-checking or accessibility aids.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-28
Lawyers suing Meta over alleged harm to teens' mental health say a newly unsealed document shows the Instagram Teen Accounts team, internally called Project Nido, ordered baseball caps reading 'a/c priv' in 2024. The plaintiffs cite this as evidence that Meta has broadly and improperly invoked attorney-client privilege to shield internal research on teen harm from disclosure. A federal judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has already ruled some of Meta's privilege claims 'entirely inappropriate' in a prior order.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-24
While author-driven and publisher lawsuits against AI companies continue, major publishers including HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House are also striking licensing agreements and partnerships with AI firms like Google. HarperCollins signed a $5,000-per-title AI training deal in 2024, and Wiley reported $49 million in AI licensing revenue for fiscal 2026, alongside collaborations with Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic. A 2025 industry survey found 63% of publishing professionals now use AI internally for tasks like royalty statements and proofreading.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-21
GoKawiil