Florida is asking a court to impose sweeping restrictions on OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and bar it from developing new artificial intelligence models without external oversight. Reuters reported on Monday that the request was filed as part of a lawsuit in which the state alleges that the company’s products harm children.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is asking the court to require OpenAI to subject the development of its future models to external oversight. The state is also seeking to prevent minors from using ChatGPT and restrict features that give the chatbot human-like characteristics.
“Stop claiming it’s safe. Stop selling it to children," Uthmeier said, according to Reuters. The demands are part of legal proceedings brought by Florida against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, in which the state alleges that the company presented its products as safe despite the potential for harm to young users.
The relief sought by Florida is unusual in scope because it would apply not only to products already in use, but also to OpenAI’s future developments. If the court grants the request, oversight would apply to the development process for new models, rather than only to the way existing ChatGPT is used.
At this stage, however, these are demands and allegations made by the State of Florida as part of the lawsuit, rather than a court finding that OpenAI harmed children or violated the law. According to Reuters, OpenAI had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.